One Small Favor
by Yokillayo
Summary: One small favor can change a persons life for better, or worse. A small favor from the Hokage will allow Naruto to tap into his full potential and become a true Shinobi. Semi Dark/Intelligent ANBU Naruto.  Not overpowered
1. One Small Favor

Human contact is something most people take for granted the ability to reach out and touch someone, to talk to someone when you're feeling sad, or lonely. Humans are social creatures; most people require human contact to function. Without it mental disorders, quirks and habits begin to form, most of which aren't what most people consider healthy. However, in Konoha it was commonplace, due to the large population of shinobi. Who at times can go months without uttering a single word, depending on the nature of their mission.

All of them had their little quirks, some subtle, like Azuma's smoking, or Kurenai's habitual morning glass of wine. Some though, were blaringly obvious, though in most cases harmless, such as Kakashi Hatake's tendency to at all times have his nose buried in a particular little orange book.

However, in some cases the lack of contact in a Ninjas life will lead to other, more destructive habits. Such as the habit of Naruto Uzumaki to train himself to the brink of death, each and every day. It had started early on, after stumbling upon a certain green glad Jounin at age 6, he caught a glimpse of the man's brutal training regimen, and this was his first real look into the world of the shinobi.

This was problematic for a few reasons; firstly, of course he was young then, so he was very impressionable. Secondly, he had nothing to compare the man too, for he had never seen another ninja go about their training regiments. Lastly, Naruto was incredibly stubborn.

So it was then, that Naruto set himself an impossible standard for his own training, I mean, come on. What six year old can crush a boulder with his bare hands? But this didn't deter the young blonde, no no, each failure only made him work harder. Naruto didn't have a family, or loved ones waiting for him at home.

All he had was his training, nothing more, nothing less. Now, most adults would consider this a bad thing, but it did give him the advantage of having an unlimited amount of free time at his disposal, not counting the time he spent in the academy. Which he despised, for understandable reasons. Naruto had yet to discover the value of knowledge, how it could change the flow of entire wars, or single battles, depending on how you used it and what subject you were talking about. That however, changed around his 8th birthday.

The energetic blonde was a streak of orange as he raced through the village at surprising speed, well, surprising to anyone who had never stumbled upon him near the academies training grounds after school hours.

'Wonder what the old man wants with me? I haven't done any pranks in months… Should probably change that.'

Were the thoughts of everyone's favorite human sacrifice as he neared the Hokage Tower, quickly bounding through the entrance, up the stairs and past the snotty receptionist that always sent him a glare. He knocked once before unceremoniously barging into the aged mans office, an amused smile greeting him.

"Hello there Naruto, its been awhile hasn't it? You've been on good behavior lately, other than when you skip school of course." Were the first words out of Sarutobis mouth, accompanied by a thick cloud of smoke. Naruto for his part had the decency to look a little embarrassed, though he simply shrugged his shoulders and stated simply. "I've been busy with other stuff." This caused a raise of the Hokages furry brows.

'No big grin, no excuses, just a shrug? So, the reports were accurate after all… He's growing up, fast.' The Hokage nodded in an understanding manner.

"Yes, I suppose learning things like history and mathematics doesn't really compare to pushing your body to the point of death for 12 hours a day, does it?"

Naruto couldn't help but flinch at that, though most of his training was done at home, or at one of the villages training grounds he did often use the academies targets to practice with his kunai and shuriken.

Naruto knew he could most likely get into a bit of trouble for his, less than orthodox training. But he didn't care; he wanted to be the best "Uhhhh. Yeah…" was his response as he shifted nervously back and forth under the Hokages steady stare.

"I was always the opposite, you know Naruto." He exhaled a puff of smoke for effect, a tilt of the young boys head signaled he had his attention. "I've always preferred knowledge over raw power; a strong punch can win a fight. But a strong mind can win a war." It was a simple and clear statement, yet it sent Narutos mind to work, thinking of the significance of it all.

"Well, that makes sense I guess, gotta be pretty smart to lead a whole village…" Naruto couldn't help but let a frown cross his face. "But… It's hard to learn at the academy. If I ask a question, everyone laughs and the teachers punish me for disrupting the class. They just plain don't like me, nobody does…"

The Hokage couldn't help but sigh and shake his head, 'So, that's what he thinks. Can't say I blame the boy, I probably would have reached the same conclusion if I were him.' "That isn't true Naruto, that's far from the truth. I know it may seem that way most of the time, but I think in the future your opinion of the people around you may change. However, I'm not going to preach, or lecture you. Though I will do something else to help."

Naruto was standing on pins of needles, eyeing the mans aged hands as he scribbled some writing in slip of paper. With a smile, Saurutobi then handed the blonde jinchūriki the note and waited for his reaction.

"What kinda crap is this, a library pass?" Narutos face instantly blanched, an uncharacteristic monotone signaling his displeasure.

The Hokage couldn't help but let out a boisterous laugh.

"Naruto, believe me when I tell you that if you take your studies seriously you won't be disappointed with the results. That pass will allow you access to the shinobi library, normally, you'd already have access. But this will make sure that nobody turns you down." He stated simply with a frown, saddened by the fact that such measures were even necessary.

Naruto shrugged, before bowing and leaving without a word. Leaving the Hokage to his thoughts. 'Now that that's done, we'll just see how far the boy will go. I imagine he'll be wanting a promotion within a couple years.'

The Hokage smiled at that, his mind reflecting on the many shinobi that had warranted early promotion and graduation from the academy. 'On second thought..' His mind had firmly settled on an image of his former apprentice, Orochimaru.

'Perhaps the life of a Shinobi is a bit much at such a young age, though Naruto is anything but a normal child. Well, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see how things go.'

Small chapter, not very great, but it'll improve. My quality of writing is determined by my interest in it and this was very boring to write. Just wanted to set the stage and give reasons for Narutos strength and change in attitude.


	2. Headshots and Hugs

The forest was a blur, 3 masked Shinobi struggled to keep up with the young man setting the pace. All three sighed in relief as he came to a stop, but quickly stood at attention as he turned on his heels and faced them while tilting his head.

'Here it comes..' Were the shared thoughts of the three, they had come to expect it, really.

"Drugs are bad, you know."

Cue the sweat drops, the cat masked ANBU regarded the man with a glare that went unnoticed, you know, because of the mask and what not. "Nobody here does drugs senpai, if any of us did you'd hear about it in the medical-"She was interrupted, as usual.

"Then why are all three of you sweating like a bunch of crack heads? Either you're on drugs, or you're immensely out of shape and it _must_ be drugs, because I don't allow laziness in my squad." He accented his point with a shrug, as if it were the most well-known fact in human history.

The two other males simply sighed and bowed their heads.

"Your being unreasonable senpai, none of us have your stamina or mass amounts of chakra.." She forced herself to remain calm; knowing that acting out in aggression was… Not advisable.

"Details, details. We'll have to correct this soon; I suppose we should get on with this mission though. The targets hideout is about 4 miles from here. We'll be using strategy 14 due to this being a hostage situation. Kitten will handle negotiations, as usual."

The three nodded in agreement, they liked this strategy, because, Naruto did everything for them; all they had to do was do their best to not be scarred for life. Simple.

So it was that the three continued forward, giving them a welcome reprieve from their captain. Not that they minded working with him, he was intelligent, efficient and quite powerful as well. But, he set a high standard for every mission they undertook.

Failure meant brutal training for the next several weeks; mistakes meant a lecture and public humiliation in front of your other two teammates. In short, he was a great Ninja, but a complete asshole.

'I need a vacation.' Were the thoughts of Yugao as the scar faced samurai came out of the pathetically reinforced doors of the small house built within the clearing of a forest just outside of a small trading village. Apparently, he and a few goons of his kidnapped the village leaders' daughter in hopes of receiving a large ransom.

Normally this would be a job for your average Jounin; however this particular village acted as a buffer between fire and lightning countries territories. So yeah, kind of important.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed several small, almost unnoticeable traces of water just outside of the clearing. She allowed herself a small smile.

"What the fuck do you Konoha scum want? Get your asses out of here before I have my men cut that whores head off." Yugao inwardly sighed at this; she got enough vulgarity with her captain for Kamis sake. For the sake of the mission she steeled herself and produced a scroll from her thigh, which caused the wannabe samurai to draw his nicked and battered blade.

"Stop right there bitch, I know how your kind-"

"It's a storage scroll; you want your money don't you?" She spoke in an even tone, continuing with her movements, albeit slowly.

The idiot actually sheathed his blade and nodded in agreement. 'Men are so easy to please.. Well, most of them anyways.' After some quick negotiations they reached an agreement, all of his men would come out of the place and show that the girl was still alive and in fair condition.

She was not in fair condition, unsurprisingly. Her clothes had been noticeably torn and ripped in places. A blindfold and gag were firmly in place and tears stained her battered face. It was clear what had been going on the last few days.

'Senpai should have pushed us harder..' Were Yugaos thoughts as her teeth clenched in rage, she held fast though, knowing that things were about to wrap themselves up. Her only regret is that the men wouldn't suffer.

"Now, hand over the cash nice and slow and have your two fuck buddies over there back the hell away from us." The bastard had the gall to appear smug in the presence of 3 ANBU officers; clearly he didn't get out much. Bear and Rat complied, though; they only got to take one step before the clearing was painted red, in blood.

In an instant, without any warning, the heads of the 4 men exploded in a shower of gore. The girl screamed, the warm crimson fluid splashing onto her pale skin, along with an ample amount of brain matter. Along with the blood, 4 streams of water were near the pile of death. If one were to examine them closely they'd be able to make out the image of a human eye at the tip of each small stream.

X With Naruto x

Naruto dispelled his shadow clones hidden throughout the forest; forming a hand seal he canceled his jutsu the long circular formation of water surrounding his right eye going lax and splashing onto the ground, below his position in the treetops. Holding his right index finger up to his face, a rapidly rotating small, yet highly condensed amount of wind chakra still surrounding its tip. He then allowed the assassination jutsu to fizzle out, before charging his fingertips with chakra, leaning his neck to the side and sending several small bursts of chakra through a small seal on his shoulder. 'Mission accomplished Hokage-sama.'

X Several days later, Konoha X

'Now, let's see how this goes.' Were Narutos thoughts as he stood outside the council chamber doors, he blinked feeling some pressure placed on his right shoulder. His body went stiff, as his hand instinctively drifted towards his ninja tools.

"Relax. It'll be fine, the mission was flawless." Were the surprisingly encouraging words from his recent squad member, Yugao.

"The councils never needed an excuse to fuck me over before, that's never gonna change kitten."

'Why does he insist on calling me that?' Yugao withdrew her hand, sensing his reaction to the contact. She wondered to herself, was Naruto really that paranoid, or is he just fucked up in the head? She'd only seen a few shinobi react so strongly to a simple gesture and none of them were particularly stable.

'Maybe it'd be a good thing if his request was rejected; I don't see how he manages to pass his mental evaluations from Inoichi.' Were her thoughts as she then followed him into the council chamber.

The council members as well as the Hokage looked down at them from their seated positions, Sarutobi offering a small smile. Yamato nodded in her direction, she smiled. Having not seen her normal team leader in quite some time.

"The council and I have some other matters to discuss today, so let's get down to business shall we?" The squad of ANBU nodded in their agreement.

"Naruto, you were tasked with leading a team of ANBU on a series of missions to evaluate your abilities as a team leader and overall performance in the field. So Yugao, how would you describe Narutos abilities?"

The purple haired kunoichi stepped forward, feeling Narutos eyes on the back of her head she mentally sighed. 'He really thinks I'm going to give a bad report, doesn't he?'

"Narutos performance was above any expectations I had from the start, given his.. Special abilities, I expected him to simply plow through any opposition he was faced with. That was proven to be a false assumption." The Hokage smiled and nodded, signaling for her to continue.

"Naruto-Senpai proved to be very efficient in the field.-"the Honorific used caused a few raised brows among the council members. They'd only ever heard her use it for Kakashi and Yamato.

"Though having the ability to outright kill anyone we've faced so far, Naruto always takes a minimalist approach to everything that we do, besides traveling. Rather than face our targets in outright combat, he chooses to use assassination techniques, poison, traps, seals and a great deal of other tactics to minimalize the possible risk of the mission. Basically he uses the least amount of energy to achieve the maximum results, showing that he's what some of you would refer to as, old school." She said the last part with a ghost of the smile, almost able to see the lopsided look Naruto sent her way.

"That's good to hear for a change." The eyes of everyone drifted to the one person nobody expected to speak out in this little meeting, Danzo looked down at young Uzumaki Naruto with an appraising eye. "Too many of our ninja are obsessed with flashy techniques and explosions; I had thought the old way of doing things had been all but lost on today's youth. I'm glad to see that's not completely the case."

Naruto was understandably a little freaked out, he shifted on his feet and just kind of, gave a little awkward bow in Danzos direction, he wasn't used to praise, especially not from the War Hawk. Sarutobi for his part was a little confused; he had always thought Danzo had WANTED Naruto to be a weapon of mass destruction.

"Why is it your opinions changed? It'd be troublesome if it were the case, I'm glad Naruto isn't a typical Jinchuuriki.

But it was my understanding that that's exactly what you'd always wanted him to be." In the end it was Shikaku that raised the question on every one's mind.

Danzo nodded towards the man, not denying that he had once thought that. "That was a long time ago, before I witnessed the raw potential and mindset the boy had. Now though, I see that he has the potential to be a sharpened blade, a tool of precision-"

Danzos choice of words caused Narutos eyes to narrow in his direction.

"as well as being able to be used as an explosive note, a tool of destruction. To be perfectly honest, he's the most versatile ninja I've seen since, Itachi."

Any anger that had previously presented itself dissolved completely with that last statement, Naruto had just been compared to arguably one of the most powerful and feared shinobi Konoha had ever produced. To be compared to Itachi was a jizz worthy compliment in his opinion.

"So then." The Hokage recaptured everyone's attention. "You wouldn't have any qualms with giving Naruto a promotion to ANBU captain, or an equivalent ranking then?" Danzo shook his head

"No, it'd be idiotic not to make use of his skills. As long as he maintains his current responsibilities as one of the villages most gifted users of fuijin jutsu, I'll support his promotion."

Ah yes there was that, Naruto had quickly established himself as a gifted user of one of the most little known form of jutsu and had offered his assistance in modifying a large variety of seals commonly used around the village. His most famous being the long range communication seal, it has revolutionized the way ANBU and even Hunter-nin operated.

Normally, after proceeding with their mission, after assessing the situation it was common for a squad of ANBU to have to send one of their members back towards the village to send word of a change of operations and request a change in mission parameters. Likewise for hunter-nin whom often had to request additional information for a number of hidden contacts throughout fire country.

Narutos seal had changed all that, it had vastly improved the productivity of Konohas ninja forces.

"I can multi task, with a series of seals I can create shadow clones remotely in the village and allow them to last for extended periods of time with soldier pills and chakra storage seals. They can work on whatever projects you have for me while I'm in the field." He stated nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders, crossing his arms to his armored chest.

"I wasn't aware of your ability to do such a thing. Recent development?" The Hokage questioned, receiving a nod in response. "Very well then, I think we're all in agreement. Naruto Uzumaki, I hereby promote you to the rank of ANBU captain. The next time you swing by ANBU HQ you'll be given the opportunity to put your own squad together. Also, you now qualify to become a hunter-nin, should you ever choose to do so. Congratulations, you've come a long way." Sarutobi couldn't help but smile, pride showing clearly in his eyes.

Naruto for his part let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, before bowing deeply addressing the Hokage. "Hai Hokage–sama"

X several hours later, atop Konohas observation facilities, commonly known as the Jounin lounge x

Naruto reclined in his seat, looking over the village with a relaxed expression. 'They really promoted me, I'm an ANBU captain.' It was a bit surreal really; he hadn't expected to rise through the ranks as quickly as he had. Naruto cocked his head to the side, sensing someone approaching his position; he relaxed, seeing that it was just his favorite kitty.

"Hello there kitten, shouldn't you be running laps or something?" He questioned, receiving a roll of the eyes as a response.

"Hello Naruto, should you be imploding someones skull or something? I just came by to congratulate you and tell you that I enjoyed working with you." She smiled, maintaining eye contact, she'd figured out how to get under his skin within the first couple of weeks.

Due to not having much positive contact in his life, and due to going through the first major stages of puberty, it was painfully easy to make him nervous. This clearly showed as he fidgeted in his seat.

"Try not to fall in love with me or anything; it was just a few missions." Naruto reclined in his seat, crossed his arms to his chest and averted his eyes. Until of course he felt a presence close to him. Looking over Yugao was seated, a bit, too close for his comfort. She nodded and simply looked off into the distance, her eyes settling on a few children at the park.

"You can be an ass sometimes, but you're a great Ninja Naruto. However I'm concerned about a few things." She stated dryly, her gaze shifting towards him. Their eyes locked, after a few moments Naruto averted his stare.

"And what might those concerns be, exactly?" He could handle criticism for the most part, but he wasn't quite expecting what she was about to say.

"For one, you're bashful and nervous around beautiful women."

Twitch, twitch.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Don't deny it either, I'm impressed you can keep yourself from blushing. But we both know that when I get tired of you being such an ass, a smile, a wink and a compliment is always enough to shut that smart mouth of yours." She let out a small chuckle, seeing his defiant expression.

"That's… I don't… Feh." He couldn't find the words to dispute it, so he settled for pretending she didn't exist and pouting.

"Guess I should have been clear.. I'm not concerned about your skills or anything like that. I'm just concerned about you yourself, Naruto."

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine." He stated plainly, confused as to what she could mean. Its not like he was some depressed, emo cutter or something.

"I've never seen you hanging around anyone your age, the only person that I could say you even remotely socialize with is Kakashi. After a mission you disappear into your house and endlessly work on some project or another, or go into the forest of death to train, not coming out for days at a time or simply whenever you receive your next mission. It's not healthy Naruto. It's also why you cant seem to handle praise, or the charms of a woman, very well. That could potentially get you into some trouble in the future, you know."

Naruto just shook his head "I wouldn't let some random kunoichi seductress bitch get that close, im not an idiot, you know." He frowned and regarded her with a light hearted glare. "As for how I spend my time, if I hadn't done all of that on a regular basis, I'd still be an inexperienced talentless idiot, running around in a kill me orange jumpsuit spouting nonsense at every opportunity."

Yugao nodded in her agreement. "Probably. But you have to remember Naruto; you can't let this profession take over your whole life. Don't let this world change you, corrupt you and turn you into a machine with only one function. You're a human and still a kid, no matter what your rank might be." She smiled at Narutos wide eyed expression, before doing something highly, highly unexpected. Her left arm wrapped around his shoulders as she pulled him into a tight embrace before she leaned down and planted a chaste kiss atop his forehead.

On Narutos part, he froze, all brain function ceased. If a medic were to look at first glance he'd probably think the kid died or something. Though the rosy red cheeks were a good indication that he still had a pulse.

Yugao rose from her seated position after releasing him, she made her way towards the exit. Stopping right before going through the door, she turned and looked at Naruto before saying one last thing. "Don't let this world break you Naruto; you've got too good of a heart for that. You're human just like the rest of us, don't ever let anyone tell you any different." With one last smile, she left Naruto to his thoughts.

'Fuck…'

Were his thoughts.

X back in the council chambers x

"Has he decided what he wants to do about his heritage yet?" Was the inquiry of Danzo, his steely gaze locked on the Hokage. The room fell silent, the recent secret of Narutos true heritage still weighing heavily on their minds. Some like Inoichi and Shikaku had already figured it out for the most part, if you bothered to look; it was pretty easy to see the truth of it all.

"Yes, he has." Sarutobi let out a sigh and closed his eyes. "It surprised even me; I knew the boy was mature. But, I hadn't expected his request."

That caught there attention, Danzo, per usual was the one to question it. "And that request was what exactly?"

The Hokage opened his eyes and appeared to be gazing off into the distance. "Due to his fathers enemies, Iwa, being the primary problem. Naruto feels that revealing his heritage to the masses would be unnecessarily problematic. He feels that it's in his and the villages best interest that it remains an S class secret."

Now that dropped a few jaws, I mean. If you were the son of one of the most powerful men in the history of shinobi, you'd want people to know about it, right? But a few knew what went along with this statement, if Naruto had revealed his heritage. Most of the village would probably change their opinions of the boy, possibly coming to accept him fully. Basically, with this request, Naruto had accepted his fate as a human sacrifice and an outcast, simply to protect his village.

"That is.. Most certainly unexpected, Hokage. Though he has a good point."

The Hokage nodded his agreement to Homuras statement. "He does indeed, but I hope each and every one of you fully realizes the sacrifice he's making for this village."

A collective nod signaled their understanding of the matter.

"Good. Meeting adjourned."

Chapter 2 finished. Not quite as long as I wanted it to be, but I thought this was a good place to end it. Most chapters will most likely be 5-7k words after this, still getting things out of the way. Now let me just say something, there is no plot. Really, I just put my imagination into words and just go with the flow. This whole chapter and the previous one is off the top of my head, the whole story will be written that way. As for pairings, there might not be any for quite some time. Though Naruto will have many interactions with many women. Two in particular, Yugao obviously being one of them. I'm not into kiddy porn, Narutos still a bit young for all that; there won't be mass amounts of smut either. Sexual themes and believable lemons, yes. But no blatant smut, everything will have a purpose


	3. You're Your Own Greatest Enemy

Knight2000: Don't worry; he's not going back to the academy. Stories like that piss me off too.

X Konoha training ground 44 aka forest of death x

Naruto stood still, his back propped against the metal fence enclosing the surrounding forest. Letting a yawn slip from his throat he then stood and stretched his somewhat stiff limbs.

'Should be enough time, unless those clones are slacking again.' It was odd really, he was quite possibly one of the hardest working individuals in the village, but every once in a while a batch of his clones would turn out to be lazy pricks.

Naruto shook these thoughts from his head before securing his arm braces tightly to his forearms. He loved his Anbu uniform; it might as well be a part of his body considering he never took it off, other than the mask, of course.

This was a routine he was familiar with, oh yes. Kakashi commonly refers to it as "The Gauntlet." Naruto would summon an army of shadow clones and have them rig a large section of the forest with every trap imaginable; putting his entire culmination of skills he's acquired over the years into an obstacle course. After doing so he himself would attempt make it through said gauntlet of doom unscathed.

He has yet to succeed, because doing so would mean that he outsmarted himself. This is a rather odd concept. But, really, it was to train his reaction time and instincts more than anything. Though today, it had a different purpose. 'Can't believe he talked me into this, I got nothing to prove to that woman.'

X Hokages office X

"A promotion? I fucking love you!" Was the response of a rather excited kunoichi, having spent year after year as a special Jounin she finally was presented with the opportunity to advance in rank. Honestly, she had given up hope of it ever happening.

The Hokage held back a flinch at the volume of her outburst before continuing.

"Yes, a promotion, into ANBU. I'll take that response as your acceptance." He stated simply with an amused smile tugging at his lips. A rapid nod and a mischievous grin confirming his suspicions.

"Good. However I have to warn you about your captain, he won't tolerate your… Antics, for extended periods of time. The vast majority of the time he's a calm individual, though he can be a "Massive pain in the ass" at times, as quoted by Yugao. Just be on your best behavior for the first month or so and you should be fine. Probably."

She regarded the Hokage with squinted eyes and a calculating stare. "Who the hell is he? Your making him sound like a serial killer so far."

Twitch, twitch, went the Hokages eyebrows. "He's nothing of the sort, I assure you. I imagine you've heard of Uzumaki Naruto? He was recently promoted to the rank of Anbu captain after an extensive evaluation of his skills, which involved taking over leadership of team Yamato temporarily."

"My squad leader is a toddler, wonderful." Her former happiness evaporated instantly, a metaphorical storm cloud appeared above her head and proceeded to drench the Hokages office in her liquidy disappointment…. Anyways.

"I had a feeling you'd react that way. You doubt Yugaos judgment?" He asked calmly, taking a deep puff from his ever precious pipe.

She gave a shrug before delivering her lengthy response. "Well, back in my day the word "Prodigy" actually meant something. Nowadays though it gets thrown around constantly. The hyuuga prodigy, the Uchiha prodigy, blah blah blah.

None of them are prodigies, their just above average. Because frankly the average is pretty damn low these days.

I've heard the same shit bout Naruto too, how he's Kamis gift to shinobi for having moderate proficiency in an area of jutsu that few people even know about.

Well, if an academy student went back in time about 300 years he or she'd be Kamis gift to shinobi too, because they'd just have more knowledge than the people around them. Doesn't necessarily mean they're that great. Get what I'm saying?"

"I do, actually." He sighed slightly, a large plume of smoke forming as he did so. Reaching into his desk drawer he retrieved his prized crystal ball. "Though seeing is believing, Anko."

X Back with Naruto, halfway through the Gauntlet X

Naruto was taking a small breather atop the canopy of a thick collection of trees, taking the time to pull several splinters of wood from his shoulders. 'How the hell am I supposed to outsmart myself?'

Originally, this training method was a suggestion from the Hokage. Who stated "Once you can defeat yourself Naruto, there won't be shinobi in the world that will be able to surprise you." Though, the Hokage meant it as more of a metaphorical statement than anything, he didn't _actually _expect him to set his shadow clones about with the mission to murder himself. But, fuck it. Whatever works right?

'Ok, I have to be overthinking this. How would you go about..defeating.. damn I'm an idiot sometimes.' He resisted the urge to face palm, the answer was obvious: Become someone else. Be unpredictable; surprise the people trying to surprise you.

X Hokages office X

Twitch, twitch, went Ankos jaw as she picked it off of the floor. Seeing Narutos elaborate traps, as well as his impressive escapes and defensive ninjutsu had already shown that he did indeed deserve his reputation. "Ok, I've been wrong before…" She admitted, frowning while her eyes were still firmly locked on the crystal ball.

Sarutobi allowed himself a small smirk, feeling more pride for the young man at work than ever before. "I think Naruto just had a bit of a revelation, I once suggested that he try defeating himself and that's originally how this little obstacle course came to be. It would seem he finally stopped overthinking things."

'Honestly Naruto, not everything is an elaborate mystery, some things in life actually _are _simple.'

X With Naruto X

BOOM! Went the perimeter bomb, the timer having begun ticking off as soon as Naruto had entered within its range, the explosion delaying so that he'd be in center of it all, assuring maximum damage.

Normally, Naruto would have taken the time to locate the first two seals and destroy them with a simple kunai/explosive note combo. However had he done so he would have found himself bombarded with poisoned senbon.

This time around he tapped into his speed and _outran _the explosion_. _Though, in doing so the moment he stepped out of its range two pillars of wood swung down from the treetops, their speed fueled by two small explosions.

Taking action, he demonstrated his flexibility by doing the splits and lowering his back to the forest floor, having judged the angle of pillars out of his peripheral vision.

Leaving him with mere centimeters of clearance, normally he would have simply defended himself with a wind jutsu. But, again, had he done so he would've discovered an unpleasant surprise. Not that he knew that now, all he knew was that he was making his clones look like a bunch of bitches.

Using a sealess earth jutsu he sank below the pillars and appeared in front of them, before quickly dashing off into the distance. However, he didn't get far, as the weight of the world felt as if it had descended upon his shoulders.

Naruto was forced onto his knees, a seal array appearing below him glowing bright green. "Gravity field containment jutsu, success." Was spoken in his own voice, though in an uncharacteristically smug tone. Out from the forest stepped a shadow clone, his right hand forming a half seal.

"Nice try boss, you got further this time than ever before. But-"

The clone was quickly cut off. "Goodbye. Ninja art: clone great explosion!" Said Naruto, forming a half seal as the earth under the clone exploded upon itself. Earlier he had taken the time to create a shadow clone and have it remain underground, because, shit happens.

Sighing deeply he stood and looked too his left, he was almost through the forest, the final stretch was in sight. He smiled to himself and set off to finish it.

However, one thing you can be sure of, though Naruto was relatively conservative, he could from time to time be accused of overkill.

He hopped quickly from branch to branch, having drawn his standard ANBU short sword to deflect projectile senbon, shuriken and kunai being launched from multiple directions.

'Something's not right, I know I wouldn't make things this easy..ahh shit.'

A wide area genjutsu fueled by yet another seal fizzled out, revealing a.. Well, you could really only call it a pit of death. A large trench had been dug out, within that trench were spikes of earth, and under those spikes of earth, the muffled telltale sizzling of a cluster of explosive notes could be heard.

Normally this wouldn't be too big of a problem, the only problem came from the fact that the damn things decided to explode and send the projectiles flying towards him at ridiculous speeds, while he was in midair.

X Hokages office X

Sarutobis eyes narrowed, he saw only one way out of this and prepared to signal the Anbu to stand down. "Watch closely Anko, this is the hidden strength of your captain."

X With Naruto X

'Only one option.. Kyuubi!' In an instant Narutos body was wrapped in a shroud of demonic, malicious red chakra. His features became animalistic, his eyes glowing a cruel shade of crimson. As the spikes came within mere feet of Naruto, he sucked in a massive amount of air, his lungs visibly expanding his sides.

Naruto let the mass of air and chakra loose, momentarily channeling the endless fury of the nine tails in the form a demonic roar, heard for miles around the village.

The results were instant, the spikes all but disintegrated. As the pressure from the technique made contact with the ground the wind expanded growing to hurricane proportions, causing the surrounding trees to sway and strain at their very roots.

The boost received from the blast propelled him the remainder of the short distance through the forest. Landing on his feet Narutos fists clenched tight enough to draw blood, forcibly suppressing the first tail of Kyuubis chakra, preventing it from forming the self-damaging cloak.

As the dust cleared and Narutos animalistic features returned to normal, he looked back at the literal crater he had just created. 'Been a while since I've had to do that. Bravo bitches.'

X Hokages office, several hours later X

"So, Ankos on board then?" Asked Naruto, having headed back towards the Hokages office after dismantling the remaining traps and calling in a favor from Yamato to repair the damage to the forest, it was a little known fact that Naruto had a healthy respect for mother nature.

"Yes. She was skeptical at first; however your little demonstration more than convinced her of your skills." Stated the Hokage with a simple shrug, having expected as much from Anko from the start.

She was almost as paranoid and disbelieving as Naruto, after all. Though her analytical skills were top notch, he'd give her that much for sure.

"Good, I suppose. What about the other two?" Naruto questioned, busying himself with cleaning the remaining blood off of his uniform.

"That's a bit of a problem actually; the tracker you requested is often rather busy with several other responsibilities she must attend-."

"Quick question." Naruto interrupted, causing the Hokage to blink in surprise several times before nodding.

"Yes….?"

"I gave you a loose description of the skills I'd like the 3 people to have that'd soon be making my squad, correct?"

"Indeed you did." The Hokage had a feeling he knew where this was going; it was amusing to say the least.

"So, why is it exactly, that two out of the three people you've chosen are all Kunoichi, has Yugao been in here brainwashing you into breaking my balls?"

The Hokage let out a small chuckle, ah to be young again.

"No Naruto, well, I wouldn't call it brainwashing at least. Yugao simply made the… Observation that you tend to be more forgiving and tolerant towards women, and since these three are skilled in all the fields you specified anyways, I didn't see a problem with taking her advice….Don't pout Naruto, its creepy coming from you."

His brows had furrowed, his head slightly inclined as his shoulders slumped. It was indeed a bit creepy.

"Whatever… You were saying…" He gave up; he was too tired to argue. As long as they qualified for the position and were capable he couldn't really complain.

"Yes. As I was saying, Hana is a rather busy Kunoichi, what with being a veterinarian and all as well as keeping an eye on her younger brother when her mother is away on missions, which is more often than not. She could still be a part of the squad; she just wouldn't be able to spend as much time doing training and all the things that go along with being a squad of ANBU. I don't know if you've realized it yet, but ANBU squads spend the vast majority of their time together."

"I have, actually. As long as she can come to the occasional meeting and be kept up to speed with whatever random ass strategies I think of then it should be alright." He said, with a slight frown. Having an Inuzuka around to do the tracking was more than worth only having a part time team member, in his opinion at least.

"Alright then, if you're sure." Naruto nodded his agreement. "Very well then, now, choosing the last member of your squad is a bit problematic."

"How so? I'm sure there's plenty of people to choose from.." Naruto stated simply.

"Indeed there is Naruto, however I'd like the last member to be somewhat experienced, and also be stronger in an outright fight than the other two. Hana and Anko are great kunoichi, don't get me wrong. But neither specializes in heavy combat." Naruto nodded in understanding, knowing that on Ankos front, she was more of a assassin, much like himself, though unlike himself she couldn't throw around A rank jutsu and walk away fresh as a daisy.

Hana was more of a medic than anything, though still being skilled in her clan jutsu.

Having someone to watch their backs would be necessary; he wasn't exactly experienced at that type of thing. Leading such an experienced and powerful team as Yamatos, it hadn't really been too much of an issue.

"I'll think of something to do Naruto, you should just go take the day off. Be ready to meet your team tomorrow morning at the Anbu training grounds. I do need to know one thing though."

Naruto knew what he was getting at, it was something the Hokage had brought up a few times before, Naruto always dodged out on answering him.

"Will you be using one of the HQ's dormitories?" And there it was, now, one thing you should know about ANBU. They're hardcore, in that they are on missions almost constantly, when they aren't on missions they're training and improving their skills.

Due to this fact, living quarters were designed so that ANBU squads could simply live together, saving time, money and effort.

This was a problem for Naruto, being a new team the common sense approach would be too accept this offer. However, Naruto has always lived on his own. It had caused him to become a bit of a recluse, honestly. He valued his privacy and the ability to walk around butt naked if he chose too.

He was about to decline, when he remembered what his former teammate had recently said.

X Flashback X

"I've never seen you hanging around anyone your age, the only person that I could say you even remotely socialize with is Kakashi. After a mission you disappear into your house and endlessly work on some project or another, or go into the forest of death to train, not coming out for days at a time or simply whenever you receive your next mission. It's not healthy Naruto.

X end flashback X

'Damn you, Yugao…' Naruto sighed deeply, receiving a questioning look from the Hokage. "Alright. We'll use the ANBU housing facilities.."

That was surprising; he had thought he'd have to convince Naruto to do such a thing. 'Seems you have the ability to leave a lasting impression, Yugao. Hmmmm.'

The aged Hokage couldn't help but to smile, before dismissing the young man and reclining in his chair. 'I wonder if Yamato would mind if…' His thoughts trailed off as his receptionist came in with a stack of papers.

'Ah. Karma at work, I suppose.' The Hokage sighed before taking out his trusty stamp.

X With Naruto X

"Wow Naruto, I'm surprised. Since when did you become the biggest pimp in Konoha?" stated a certain Cyclops with his patented eye smile.

"Don't be an ass, Kakashi." After leaving the Hokages office, he had gone too find Kakashi, the only person in the village he could honestly say was his friend.

Kakashi had been his Jounin sensei, after the Chunin exams and his resulting promotion he had continued doing high level missions and training with him until he was picked up by Anbu. He had taught Naruto, a lot.

"Ah ah Naruto, don't complain. Come on now, most men would be excited that they have two of the most beautiful women in the village as their _subordinates."_ The innuendo wasn't lost on Naruto.

"I swear, you're almost on the same level of pervertedness as that damn hermit Jiraya-"

"I take that as a compliment."

"- im 12 for kamis sake. It's not gonna be like _that, _all its gonna be is awkward as hell." Grumbled Naruto.

"You need to learn how to allow yourself to be happy."

Now where the hell did that come from? Narutos eyebrows furrowed as he glared a hole through Kakashis skull. "What're you going on about now?"

Kakashi sighed slightly before putting his precious book away, momentarily at least. He couldn't be expected to be apart from it for long after all. Kakashi then leveled Naruto with a rare, serious look.

"You care deeply for the people around you." A tilt of the head and glare signaled that Naruto was about to launch into a rant filled with a creative stream of curses and denials. Kakashi didn't give him the chance to start.

"I've seen your little bouts of banter with Yugao, and the rest of Yamatos team. You pall around with them without even realizing it. However you need to learn to relax and be yourself, rather than relying on your quick wit and sarcasm to initiate a conversation with someone." Kakashi shrugged before continuing.

"You act as though it'd be a bad thing to have a few more friends, yet you don't even know Anko, but you've been working for a few months now on a method of removing her curse seal. You're a nice guy Naruto, no matter how much you want to be a bastard."

Kakashi observed Naruto throughout his small speech; his eyes had glazed over in thought as he stared idly into his tea at his own reflection. A deep frown lining his lips.

"I don't.. I just.. The feeling is still so foreign." Said Naruto, cryptically.

"The feeling of not being alone?" Kakashi prodded, it was rare that he actually managed to penetrate the walls Naruto put up around himself. He knew he needed to capitalize on this moment, for the boy's sake.

A nod was Narutos only response.

"Yeah, it takes some getting used to I imagine. But you just have to learn how to relax and go with the flow."

'Go with the flow..' It was a simple statement, but it made sense. Sure, he may not know exactly how to act around people. But he could always just try, going with the flow of things.

"If something good is about to happen, allow it to happen. That's all I'm saying. Whether it is a kind embrace, or a good conversation, just let it happen. I think the three of you will become pretty close over time, especially after you crack the code on the curse seal." He said with a genuine smile, though it went unnoticed.

"Hows that coming by the way?" He figured he'd said enough for now, he could tell that Narutos mind was already at work, contemplating what he had said thus far.

"Fantastically and terribly at the same time, depending on your point of view." He said, reclining in his seat, casting his previous thoughts aside for the time being.

"The problem isn't the seal itself, that's simple enough to deal with. Though seals like that can't really be removed, they can be fully neutralized, though."

"So what's the problem then?" Asked Kakashi, burying is nose in his smutty personal paradise.

"It's not the seal that's the problem really, just the effect it's having on her body. It works by draining her chakra, filtering it somewhat with its odd enzymes. Then it recirculates the chakra throughout her body. Its acting as a tenkutsu point basically."

"Still not seeing the issue Naruto…" He leveled Naruto with a deadpan expression, though he was a brilliant young man. When it came to seals he was a terrible teacher, if something was obvious to him he seemed to think it should be obvious to everyone else.

"Right. Well… How can I put this.. The seal is like, a shot of heroine to an addict. It's highly addictive, and when you use it, it makes you feel invincible for a short period of time, when it goes away though you begin to suffer withdrawals.

Because Ankos seal is incomplete and because she's never fully activated it, it hasn't really done any major damage. Yet she's addicted regardless, due to the minimal, but constant amount of filtration of her chakra."

A look of understanding dawned on Kakashis face. "Ahh. I see where you're going with this, if you were to fully neutralize the seal-"

"Anko would suffer from worse withdrawals than a drug addict, yes." He frowned deeply at this. "It might even kill her. I've worked out what I need to do, it's just immensely complicated. Which is annoying because I could neutralize it right now if need be. But like I said, that's just not a viable option at this point."

Kakashi sighed slightly, feeling a bit sorry for the woman. "Well, she's waited this long, I'm sure she'll be fine for a while longer."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "What I can do though, is destroy the killswitch.. Which I'm not sure Anko or even the Hokage is aware of."

….

…

….

"Killswitch…?" was Kakashis delayed response, his one visible eye widening.

"Yeah.. Orochimaru can't directly control her, but he can kill her at this point. He just has to be in the area, one hand seal and, well… Lucky for her Orochimaru isn't a seal master, per say. He didn't have enough skill to fully combine the two seals into one, they're simply overlapping each other, and so I can isolate and neutralize it without causing her any harm."

Kakashi sighed in relief at that; he didn't know Anko on a personal level or anything. But he had worked with her, just like Naruto, underneath all the bullshit she threw peoples way she was a good person. She most definitely didn't deserve to die at the hands of the serpent sannin.

"You know, if you can do that now, then. How bout I pick up the tab and you get to it?" He stated with another awkward eye smile.

Naruto allowed himself a small smirk. "You were picking up the tab anyways, Baka, you skipped out on me the last time we got something to eat."

Kakashi sighed in defeat at that, cheap bastard.

"Fine, fine. But when do you plan on telling her all this?"

Naruto shrugged once more. "Probably tomorrow, I'm still deciding whether I should tell her everything or not. Don't want to get her hopes up. Still gonna be a long time before the seals finished, even longer till the neutralization process is complete."

"That's very _nice_, of you Naruto." Kakashi stated, sensing that their little get together was almost over anyways, he figured he might as well drive his point home.

Twitch, twitch.

"Cyclopean lazy bastard." Stated Naruto in false irritation, he then stood and prepared to go. "Anyways, I gotta swing by ANBU HQ and get my new uniform and..Oh yeah." Naruto stopped moving for a moment; reaching into his pocket he retrieved a small scroll before tossing it Kakashis way.

Kakashi just stared at it in his hand with his usual lazy expression before looking towards Naruto. "What's this for, exactly?"

Naruto smirked once more. "I'm not gonna be going on missions with you anytime soon, so I won't be able to pull your ass out of the fire if you get in too deep out there. That's a single use summoning scroll, I don't care if I'm on active duty or not. If you get into trouble, use it. Got it?" he stated with a raise of his eyebrows.

Again with the eye smile, he seemed to be doing that more often nowadays. "How _kind _of you to make such a thing for me. Thanks Naruto, and I'll be sure to do that." He said with a condescending tone, chuckling as Naruto just mumbled a string of curses under his breathe and left, his expression a mixture of awkwardness and irritation.

X Anbu HQ X

"Ouch." Stated Naruto, as a recruit finished tracing his tattoos with his index finger, converting the once red ink to silver. Other than that and the pitch black color of his new armor, rather than the whitish gray of the standard uniform, not much was different his new uniform or ninja gear, other than the bat mask receiving more prominent features.

"We're done here, congratulations on your promotion Naruto-sama."

Naruto nodded to the recruit politely before standing, sheathing his now sharpened blade and heading out of the small room. 'Might as well check out my new place while I'm in the area..'

The ANBU organizations budget was, large to say the least. They were the elite among the elite, so naturally they would get fairly good benefits and living conditions.

The HQ itself was on a fairly large portion of property, under heavy surveillance and guard. It was disputably the most secure area of the entire village. After heading out of the large building, Naruto headed to the back and begin bounding atop the living facilities, that were each the size of a small apartment complex, he then began eyeing a piece of paper he held in his hand. 'Building 32b.'

On his way there, several recruits and experienced officers alike actually stopped to salute him. Naruto, did not mind this.

'Could definitely get used to this shit.' Were his thoughts as he smiled widely under his mask and reached his soon to be home.

X Hokages Office X

"Are you sure about your decision Yamato, I could find someone else if not. It's not too big of an issue, really."

The man smiled towards the aged man, before nodding slowly. "I'm sure; you bring up a good point. All the members of my squad have come a long way. In fact, it'd probably be more efficient if Bear and Rat also split off and formed their own squad. I won't lie and say I won't miss working with them. But I think this is probably in theirs and the villages best interest."

The Hokage nodded in his agreement, surprised that Yamato had so readily complied with his request. "Very well then, Uzuki Yugao shall be reassigned as the third member of team Naruto."


	4. Is She Serious?

Naginator: I doubt I'll be having Naruto get freaky with Samui, but yeah. I'm sure I'll have some type of interaction with Naruto, Samui, Killer Bee and the rest of them at some point. Not overly familiar with their characters unfortunately. If you know some good fics with their characters having a lot of dialogue send me the names in a message.

Soulofdragon1: Thanks, as for the pairings. Its undecided really, just depends on what i want the outcome of this to be. Whether I'm just gonna have a somewhat dramatic Naruto story with him and his team being the main focus, or if I'm going to go all out and attempt to write some epicenes. If I do make him official with a woman I do have one or two possibilities in mind. But as I said before right now the focus is mainly just going to be character development, with some fluff, sensuality(Innocent teasing as of right now, empathy and gratitude in Ankos case.), badass fights (Hopefully) and randomness(Freaky pouting maybe?).

**X READ THIS X**

Important side note: I've gone ahead and decided to make Naruto be a bit older, three years to be exact. So, the ages are as follows.

Yugao: 19 as of now, 23 at rookie 9 Chunin Exams

Anko: Same as Yugao.

Hana: 16…19 at Chunin Exams. Did not know she was so young..lol

Naruto: 12 here, 13 soonish and 15 going on 16 at Chunin Exams.

Also, I'm considering adding Kyuubi into the mix. It'll be female, kinda, but don't expect a "Naruto even though I despise your father, village and humans in general I'm gonna have hot kinky sex with you for no apparent reason." Type of thing, because you'll be very disappointed. Their interactions will be fairly complicated.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was early in the morning, around 6. Naruto had just finished gearing up and was on his way towards the Anbus training grounds, it was a short walk because he had already moved his things into his new home and had spent the night there.

Letting loose a small yawn he sat down and leaned back against a thick tree, his mind racing over what was soon to come.

'Well, meeting my team today, my all female and most likely ball busting team.' He thought with a sigh. Naruto knew he was being overly pessimistic, he was sure they'd all be professional in the field. Even if they weren't he could correct that, fairly easily actually.

It was the living arrangements that worried him, though he had chosen to take what Kakashi suggested to heart. 'Just go with the flow, go with the flow.' He repeated this mantra in his head several times before closing his eyes, his thoughts beginning to diverge to something else that had been on his mind.

The image of the pit of death flashed in his mind, he thought back on the malicious, intensely powerful and intoxicating feel of Kyuubis chakra. On one hand it was single handedly the most terrifying being he'd ever encountered, on the other hand its power was simply addictive, plain and simple, which is what scared him the most.

He thought back on his first meeting with that, _thing. _In actuality it hadn't been very long ago.

X Flashback, 1 year ago. B rank mission with Kakashi Hatake X

It was supposed to be a fairly simple mission, take out small group of Yakuza that had set up shop near the land of waves, in a somewhat small fishing village. In recent years the crime rate of the area had skyrocketed for unknown reasons, though it wasn't their job to investigate. They were here to assassinate.

It should have been a walk through the park; Kakashi had kindly and politely knocked at the front door, with a chidori. While Naruto was in the background, per usual, with his Water Style: Hunters Sight Jutsu, which granted him subtle long range vision through the use of a stream of water and light refraction, while using a bit of wind manipulation to pick off the would-be Samurai that were locked in combat with the aforementioned Cyclops.

Things were going smoothly up until Naruto had spotted the leader, a fit, yet balding old man wearing a simple black gi. Narutos brows furrowed in concentration as a thought crossed his mind. 'Why does he look so damn familiar?' He shrugged it off, though the thought stuck to his mind like Orochimaru to a lost little boy.

That aside, he decided to wrap things up quickly and took aim, after waiting for the wind to die down he let it loose. The small bullet of raw wind chakra spiraled rapidly, tearing through several trees and obstructions of its path before slicing easily through the glass and penetrating the mans skull…

.

.

"Ok, so that's why he looked familiar." Naruto stated dryly, seeing him turn into a puddle of water.

"This can't be good." He uttered before moving to a standing position and preparing to send a telegraphic message too Kakashi via his newly perfected seal. He was interrupted as his instincts began screaming at him to haul ass.

Soon after he dodged out of the way, metallic spinning curved blades turned the tree limb he had seconds ago been standing on into sawdust.

Turning on his heel, he eyed the man that had previously been standing at the window. Though now he was sporting a rather large, brutal Zanpaktou with serrated edges on both sides. The thing had to weigh at least 200 pounds, yet he was holding it like it was made out of cardboard.

'Damnit; did not expect to be fighting one of the 7 swordsman today.' Were his thoughts, if he had known of Harama Daisuka, the terror of the bloody mist, being here it wouldn't be such a big issue. He would have had time to prepare and form a strategy for him and Kakashi to take him down, however there was only one surprise up his sleeve at this point.

"You're a Jounin, if that vest of yours is any indication. That's quite impressive for someone your age." Harama spoke in a genuinely respectful tone.

"But it hardly makes any difference up against someone like me, I'm afraid. Though the copy nin being here is, unfortunate, to say the least. No use crying over spilt blood though, my mama always used to say."

He didn't allow Naruto time to respond before swinging his blade in a large sidelong arc, a torrent of sickle like projectiles flying from his Zanpaktous edges.

Naruto, or so the man thought, simply stood there, face completely blank even as the sickles cut through his prone form. Leaving only…A puff of smoke in their wake?

Harama simply frowned at that, though his disappointment turned to surprise as the entire area began to distort. Revealing that a subtle Genjutsu had covered their immediate vicinity.

He simply sighed, seeing that the entire area had been covered in explosive notes. "Ever heard of a thing called overkill brat?"

X With Kakashi X

The Shinobi we all love to love, was proving his reputation in spades by dispatching men left and right, in the literal sense. 'Two things you can always count on in a mission, bad information and no baths.' Even in the middle of combat he was still a bit, quirky. Yeah, let's go with quirky.

Though to be fair the information they were given was pretty poor, given the fact that the Yakuza had 4 times as many men in the area than the mission parameters had stated. 'No matter, 4 x 0 is still 0' The Yakuzas forces were far from being skilled.

Also, Kakashi was in every Bingo Book in existence for a reason. Most people, those people usually consisting of civilians, didn't think much when they saw a grown man walking around reading porn all die. Add in the aloof demeanor and Kakashi came off as anything but threatening.

Kakashi dodged an overhead strike, the blade missing his scarecrow impersonating self by a few centimeters. Flipping his wrist he then drove his Kunai through the bottom of the Yakuzas jaw and up into the roof of his now blood filled mouth.

The whole not being threatening thing was incredibly inaccurate, honestly. Though that's what made Kakashi an awesome guy, he had managed to learn how create a bit of an off and on button when it came to being one of the deadliest and most infamous killers in the shinobi nations. People in Iwa look at Kakashi the same way people in Konoha look at Ninjas like Zabuza, for example. Which goes back to the whole good and evil thing, being nothing but a point of view.

Twisting his kunai free Kakashi then ducked low and lashed out with a donkey kick behind himself, hearing the crunch of a broken kneecap and anguished filled curses. It was pretty loud; his ears are more sensitive than most so he didn't really appreciate that.

Twisting his torso and utilizing his momentum, he began making hand seals and rotating rapidly after having slashed the mans throat.

'Wind Style: Howling Vortex jutsu!'

The technique was true to its name, the wind speed of the medium sized tornado was equivalent of an f4 tornado produced by Mother Nature. So when it initially started rotating a loud bellowing "Howl" was the result.

As the jutsu did its thing, all the remaining samurai in the immediate area were sucked into its angry gale force winds. Kakashi wasn't done though.

Still rotating along with the wind around him, he jumped up high in the air with the aid of chakra, extending his arms and dragging his two kunai through the technique. As he jumped out of the tornados eye and landed gracefully, the effects were noticeable.

Ever seen a red tornado? Kakashi had just created one.

As the jutsu died down a pile of bodies, blood and severed limbs were clearly visible. Though Kakashi ignored it, finding the pages of Icha Icha more interesting at the moment. 'I wonder where Naruto is. He's not one to sit on the sidelines for long.' His question was answered in the form of an earth shaking explosion.

"There he is!" He stated enthusiastically with an eye smile all to himself.

Really, Kakashi was just plain disturbing sometimes. In a happy, cheerful kind of way. This just made it all the more, creepy.

X With Naruto X

Unfortunately the fight hadn't concluded with that explosion, after the dust settled Hamara was revealed to be unscathed due to his sword.. Giving him a big hug?

Or some shit like that; the damn Zanpaktou was sticking to his back like glue and had wrapped around him completely shielding him from the explosion. It was odd. After that, shit hit the fan.

From his prone form, Hamara had forced spikes to grow from every which way, extending at blinding speeds, piercing everything in their path. Once again, Naruto had had to haul ass.

After that, things got a bit better, seemed those were the only tricks the swordsman had left. Though Naruto never led his guard down, always expecting something to jump out and bite him in the ass, being the paranoid person that he was.

The only thing he seemed to have going for him was that Hamaras defensive technique rendered him completely immobile, though then again that's what the spikes were there to make up for.

Naruto tried everything to kill this stubborn son of a bitch, fire, wind and even lightning jutsu, turned out whatever metal the damn thing was made of didn't conduct electricity, dropping a boulder on top of his head; he even tried a chakra depleting barrier seal.

It was meant to contain a target and use their chakra to constantly improve the barriers defense. However, Homara just kind of, drilled through it, literally. Apparently he could create quite a bit of force with his damnable spikes.

Although Naruto could boast to having mass amounts of chakra and stamina, he was beginning to feel the drain. Hamara sensed this and had switched to offence, showing that he wasn't a slouch at close combat in the form of several cuts along Narutos young body.

Things weren't really looking good, he was a powerful Ninja, definitely deserving of his rank. But the only thing he was really lacking was experience, this was the most intense fight he'd ever partaken in and he was alone. Not to mention he just couldn't figure out a way of penetrating the bastards defenses. If he survived this he'd need a way of correcting that little issue.

'What the fuck am I gonna do?' He wouldn't lie; he was getting a little scared. Though he couldn't reflect on it for long, things were about to go from bad to worse.

Again with the projectiles, Naruto had never heard of any metal jutsu before now. But the damn thing seemed to have an infinite supply of cutting edges. As he soon found out by being barraged with them once again, flashing through handseals he pulled on his depleting chakra stores and summoned forth a wall of earth. However, it seemed Hamara had one more surprise.

Forming a half seal, he smiled before screaming. "Lightning style: rending disks!" Once again, the name fit. Narutos earth wall was reduced to dust as the blades were instantly charged with lightning chakra, turning each into a rapidly spiraling disk of destruction.

He only had an instant to react; he propelled himself off of the ground and twisted his body. There was no possible way to dodge them all; all he could do was minimize the damage. Even so… It wasn't enough.

Naruto lay on his back, leaking blood profusely from numerous deep gashes. His hand was clenched to his side, his breathes coming out heavy and raspy. It was clear his lung had been punctured.

'Is this really how I'm gonna die, on my back like a whore?' He wanted to be able to stand up and spit in his face, he wanted to have the strength to move. He wanted so much to rip him to pieces. But he could barely summon the strength to stay conscious.

This was the scene Kakashi walked in on, in an instant the sharingan was blazing furiously and Kakashi was out for blood. Kami be damned if he wouldn't get it either. 'I should have been faster!' he thought as he opened the first celestial gate, driving Hamaras metal infused body into the ground by first upper cutting him into the air, his fist shattering on contact, before utilizing Gai's infamous Leaf Hurricane taijutsu.

'I shouldn't have wasted time!' A chidori ripped through the earth as he attempted to slice through the former mist nin, to no avail. Though it didn't stop him in the least.

'I should have slaughtered them all in an instant and-' His thought process was cut off however, as he felt a familiar malicious presence. Turning around, both eyes visibly widened before a body flicker carried him as far away as his depleted reserves could get him.

**X **Narutos mindscape, outside Kyuubis cage X

Fear, that's all Naruto could comprehend at the moment. He thought he had felt fear when he had died earlier, but nothing in his life had ever compared to the feeling brought on by the beast in front of him.

A deeply, bloody crimson set of eyes glowed from behind the thick bars in front of him. The air grew hot, the chakra around the beast was almost tangible. It heated the room to uncomfortable temperatures.

'This is.. This has to be'

"**What? I must be what, exactly**?"

Ok, that was not a good sign. It spoke, it freaking spoke! Which meant it was sentient, possessing intelligence. He had always assumed that tailed beasts were simply masses of chakra fueled by animalistic instincts. The Kyuubi possessing intelligence just made it infinitely more dangerous.

'Even so, I can't back down.. This might be my only chance. I can't afford to let fear stop me. Kakashi and I have near exact same fighting styles when we're in straight up combat. I doubt he'll have much more luck than I did.. He's done too much for me; I can't allow him to die!'

"Kyuubi, I need your chakra, I need to live. If I go down, you're going with me." Right, punk out a demon lord. Good strategy kiddo.

Of all the things he had been expecting, he hadn't expected a smile. It was not pleasant. You'd be a little uncomfortable too staring at canines the size of your entire body. Then, it spoke again, once again, surprising Naruto.

"**You're correct in that assumption and I'll comply for now. However, in the future, you and I are going to sit down and have a little, chat." **Its smile widened, as its thick red chakra squeezed its way past the bars, converging on Narutos body.

"**Right now though, I'm going to need you to submit, only for a few moments.**" As if Naruto had much choice, it was either hand over temporary control of his body, or die alongside Kakashi.

"**And Naruto.' **Kyuubi regarded him with a narrowing of the eyes; there was something about the calmness in which it spoke that made it all the more intimidating. Almost as though he were talking too..

"**If you ever talk to me like that again, I will devour you.."**

X Real World X

"Ouch." Exclaimed Naruto as he opened his eyes, Kakashis relieved expression being the first thing he saw.

"Evening Naruto, nice nap?" Kakashi asked as if they were relaxing in the village or something.

"Well.." Naruto eyes swiveled over to Hanara, he was still in his metallic form, but.. Well he had lost some weight, mainly due to hole that had been burned through his stomach. There was a sizeable, still smoking grove in the earth leading up to Hanaras body. 'So, this is the power of the Nine Tails, huh?' Naruto shook those thoughts away, before responding to Kakashi.

"Slept better than he probably is right now.. Let's get the hell outta here."

Though the mission turned into a proverbial shitstorm, one good thing did come out of it. Kakashi Hatake was never late for anything again after that day.

X End flashback X

Naruto didn't quite know what was wrong with him at the moment, his heart was.. Aching, for some reason. For some unexplainable reason he felt happiness, he hadn't given himself time to even feel such strong emotions in such a long time. Something about the memory of seeing Kakashi's worried face, had sparked a slow, but startling realization. 'I've never been truly alone, have I? I may not have a family waiting for me at home, but. In the end there's always been someone there for me.'

At the moment Naruto was grateful for the mask he was wearing, nobody wanted to see an Anbu captain cry. If they did they'd probably take it as a sign of an invasion of Konoha or some shit, Anbu weren't exactly known for their tender emotional moments after all.

Naruto had started off thinking about the boundless power of Kyuubi, and had ended up having a possibly life changing revelation. How that worked out, well. Only the insane could comprehend insanity.

Naruto felt 3 chakra signatures heading his way, one of them being very familiar. 'You always have my back, don't you gramps.' He chuckled to himself, what little worry he had over leading this team disappeared, knowing Yugao would be there to help out.

Casting those thoughts aside, he stood tall; straitening himself and prepared to meet the team he'd be working with for, kami willing, the rest of his career.

X With the ladies X

"So Yugao, you've worked with him. What's our little chibi captain like?" Spoke Anko, with her Cheshire grin that made many a man quiver in fear, and something else. Depending on their, tastes.

The two women had met up that morning, having been informed yesterday of their formation on a squad under Naruto Uzumaki.

"That depends; do you want to know what he's really like, or what he'd like you to think he's like?"  
>Anko just hmmm'd, at the cryptic response.<p>

"So he's like that huh?" She knew that type, mainly because she was the same type. Not that she'd ever admit it, to anyone. Ever.

"Yeah, he tries his damndest to come off as a pessimistic, egotistical jackass. But it's fairly easy to see through it if you pay enough attention." She tilted her head slightly in thought before continuing.

"When he goads you and insults your skills, he's trying to appear like an asshole. But really he's pushing you to become stronger, when he sees you doing something wrong, whether it is a jutsu, seal, or taijutsu form. He'll laugh at you and pick apart your technique with his smart mouth, but he also always sneaks in a helpful tip on correcting your mistakes."

She thought back to the time Naruto had forced her, Rat and Bear to increase their chakra reserves. "And when you've pushed yourself too hard and pass out, you'll wake up bandaged in your bed with a soldier pill on your nightstand. He's a good kid."

Yugao shrugged, ending her little speech. Anko was surprised, to say the least. But for once remained silent on the matter.

"Wait up! I'm here!"

The two stopped, seeing who it was Yugao smiled warmly at the young woman while Anko just rolled her eyes. "Late on the first day, way to go runt." Spoke the formerly fishnet clad kunoichi, much to her displeasure she'd been forced to trade in her trench coat for a standard Anbu attire.

"Sorry about that, Kiba was being a pain this morning. As usual." Hana huffed in frustration; she wanted to be able to make a good impression on all of them.

When the Hokage had called her into the office and had told her that the second youngest Anbu captain in history had requested her to be on his squad, she was surprised to say the least. She'd only been a Chunin for about a year, and now Anbu wanted her? Hells to the yeah!

"There he is." Announced Yugao, gesturing with her head towards the young man whom was looking in their general direction, arms crossed to his chest.

"Wow, captain chibi makes that gear look good."

Give you three guesses who said that, not that you'd really need more than one.

"You do realize he's twelve? The only one who'd get away with.. That, would be Hana here." A blush and a few sputtered words were Hanas thoughts on that particular statement.

Anko though, just shrugged and stated bluntly. "He won't be twelve forever. It'll be fun to mess with his head in the meantime, though."

Yugao couldn't dispute that; it'd make her a hypocrite.

X with Naruto X

"Hello and good morning you three, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Surprised to see you here Yugao didn't imagine you'd be the third member." He stated in a bored tone.

"Well, if you'd rather have someone else I'm sure the Hokage could find a replacement, Senpai." Commented Yugao with a blank face, seeing him frown, she blinked in wonder.

She'd have to give him credit; with his next statement he'd won this round.

"Nah.. I'll feel better out there knowing I've got you watching my back."

Well, that was definitely new. Naruto had never come outright and admitted to enjoying working with her, though she knows he did. After recovering from her surprise she smiled brightly before speaking. "Well thank you Naruto-Senpai, that's sweet of you to say."

Naruto shifted back and forth uncomfortably on his feet. 'This is gonna take some getting used to.'

"Yeah, whatever. Anyways it's time to get down to business. Though first I guess we should get to know each other a bit and-"He was cut off, unsurprisingly, by Anko.

"Unless you've got a exhibitionism fetish isn't that something we should do in private captain chibi-chan?"

…

..

…..

He sighed deeply. 'And so, it begins.'

xxxxxxxxx

There we go a flashback to Narutos past and my interpretation of Kakashi and the rest of the shinobi nations, the side you don't get to see much. I think I'm gonna doom you guys to short chapters like this continuously, I dunno.

It's comfortable writing it this way, rather than saving up like 15k words over a week or so. I think that's why a lot of authors give up and let their fics die.(Damn you case13!) I like getting a little feedback as I go, so I can see what I'm doing wrong, leaving out. Etc etc.

So if there's something you want to see in particular let me know and I'll take it into consideration as I write. Next chapter will be a _**small**_ time skip, just about a week or so. It'll focus solely on Narutos team, and maybe that visit the Kyuubi promised Naruto.


	5. Prison Visit and Booty Short Surprise

Anonymous reviewer person whom had no name: Yeah, I'll admit to being lazy with those. That comes from me despising grammar and punctuation with a white hot passion more intense than a thousand suns. But I guess I can suffer through a revision, or 4. Thanks for busting my balls about it, otherwise I probably wouldn't have ever changed it.

As for the Kyuubi being female, I said it's "Kinda" going to be female. I actually _do_ want to do_ s_omething creative with it, but I'm still ironing out all the details. So I'm just gonna hold off on introducing it/her/whatever at the moment. I think I made it fairly clear of what I think about most of the female Kyuubi stories, so why would I write something similar? No disrespect or attitude intended, just clarifying.

Chooocolate: Firstly, awesome username, secondly. I've left some clues about how the first interactions with a few members of the rookie nine are going to be initiated. Skim over the second and third chapters a bit.

By the way everyone, sorry about the chapter mix up. Must've been a mix-up on my part or something, it said everything was fine on my end but every time I went to check it outside of my profile chapter 3 had duplicated itself and replaced chapter 4. Fixed now. Rando gets a cookie for pointing it out to me.

On with the sexiness.

X 1 Week after initial team meeting X

It had been an eventful week, after managing to shrug off Ankos comment; they had all headed back to the dormitory so the ladies could get settled in. Naruto had then called everyone into the living room and they got situated themselves on the large wraparound black leather couch, which everyone pretty much fell in love with.

That night and the rest of the week they familiarized themselves with each others fighting styles, capabilities and Naruto drilled a few of his basic strategies into their heads. Yugao being helpful and clarifying on some things, already knowing how Naruto liked to work. Naruto had been forced to send Hana home with some material to look over however, since she couldn't stick around for long.

Which was unfortunate, because whenever she was around her somewhat conservative attitude offset Ankos vulgarity and obsession with "Her captain chibi-chan" whatever the hell that was.

Now though, it was around midnight and Naruto was wide awake, he averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night. Kakashi had said his little need of rest had something to do with the small amounts of Kyuubis chakra leaking into his coils, which constantly replenished his energy and chakra. Whatever. It was useful as hell, especially when you basically had 3 full time jobs.

Indeed Naruto had his hands full, what with currently working on the final stages of the jutsu to fully suppress Ankos curse seal, starting a project to improve the security and containment seals of Konohas prison, as well as all the duties that went along with being an Anbu captain. Not to mention his own training and side projects.

Luckily for him though, he could create more hands in the form of shadow clones whenever need be. Though, he still enjoyed doing some work himself.

"Keep up the good work guys, I'm gonna get something to eat."

The clones flipped him the bird, Naruto smirked at them before walking out of his room.. Before heading back and putting a pair of shorts on. "Bastards, you saw me walking out." He stated at his collection of clones with a glare.

"Fail to see how that's our problem, jackass." The rest of the clones snickered at that. Naruto couldn't help but sigh in exasperation; he hated dealing with himself all the time.

Yeah, he has issues. Who doesn't?

'Still not used to this, not half bad though. Kinda nice to have someone other than yourself to look at all the time.' Were his thoughts as he walked into the kitchen.

'Very nice, actually.' He added onto those thoughts as he discovered he wasn't the only one awake. His mind suddenly froze over.

Poor guy never had a chance, though most men would have the same reaction, seeing Anko in black cutoff T-Shirt that stopped just _barely_ below her bust. Accompanied and matched perfectly by a black pair of what is commonly referred to as, booty shorts.

Naruto couldn't help but stare, the kitchens window let in just enough moonlight to give Ankos pallid skin a healthy glow, his eyes trailed her sides admiring her generous curves and the way her legs just kind of went on forev-

"Yo."

…

..

….

'Oops...'

He'd been a little too preoccupied to notice the fact that she'd been staring at him for the past thirty seconds.

"Still up working on that seal?" She asked in an even tone, not showing any hint of anger, or, really anything but curiosity.

'The one time she has every right to tease and torture me, she changes the subject… I'm never going to understand women.' Naruto wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so he decided to just, go with the flow.

"Yeah, that and a few other things." He stated with a simple shrug, before raising an eyebrow and continuing. "You still can't sleep very well, can you?"

He had already dealt with the killswitch, after he did so Anko had acted odd around him for a couple of hours. He didn't really mind, he wasn't looking for eternal gratitude or anything.

"Nah... The nightmares are gone, but. My body's just used to waking up screaming around this time, I guess." She stated with a humorless chuckle.

Naruto nodded in understanding, he'd had his fair share of horrifying nightmares. Came with the job, really. "You hungry?" Might as well roll with this whole lack of sexual frustration thing he had going for him right now. Kami only knows how long it'd last, after all.

"I could eat." Was her simple answer. "You cooking?" she asked with a raised brow. She didn't think she should trust a 12 year old orphans cooking skills, no offence to Naruto, of course.

Naruto then made the familiar handseal for the shadow clone jutsu and a copy of himself popped into existence. "Nope, he is."

"Fuck you too, boss."

X thirty minutes later in the living room X

"Holy hell where'd you learn to cook like that?" Ankos hand rested firmly on small pudge that had become of her normally perfectly sculpted stomach. She was reclined leisurely on the couch, Naruto sitting close across from her.. But not too close.

"Got tired of eating ramen 3 times a day, so I taught myself how to cook fairly early on." Naruto said in an amused tone, watching as she twitched and continuously readjusted herself, as if someone were rubbing her-

'OK! Really gotta stop thinking like that, at least while she's around.'

"Next time remember to cut me off around the third plate, pretty please?" She continued to whine.

"Considering how much you enjoy torturing me, I don't think I'll be doing you any favors in the near future." He stated using a singsong tone, smirking and admittedly taking some comfort in her displeasure.

"Ah, chibi-chans got claws eh?" She chuckled as he simply rolled his eyes at her. "Relax, it's good for you. You gotta learn to deal with women sometime, right?" She smirked as he furrowed his brows, clearly not believing her.

"You mean to tell me, that this whole time you've been messing with my head, as some twisted way of trying to help me deal with and talk to women?" He frowned, that just didn't sound right. I mean, how is constantly resisting the urge to jizz in your pants supposed to help with that?

"Well Yugao-

'Damn that woman.'

"- mentioned to me before we met up a few things about you. Also, I've e noticed you have confidence in yourself, your skills and competence as a shinobi. But when it comes to women you've got nada." She tilted her head in thought, now that she thought about it that was kind of weird, how could someone with so much confidence be so self-conscious at the same time?

"Eh, missing-nin, foreign ninja, nin, tai, gen and pretty much any other form of jutsu and really, most anything dealing with being a shinobi, I can deal with. To me though, women just seem immensely more… Troublesome." He stated blandly, channeling his inner Shikaku.

"We're not as complicated as you boys make us out to be, you know. Would you like me to give you a little lesson in love, captain chibi-chan?" She couldn't resist adding a little, spice to her voice. He was just so cute when his pants got a little tight.

"Sure…" He really, really hoped he didn't regret this…

He was surprised though when Ankos face got serious as she sat up straight, and turned her body to face his while propping her check on her palm. "First off, I can't speak for all women, because every woman is a bit different. But generally speaking what I'm about to say is all true."

He just nodded and gave her the go ahead to continue.

"We love confidence, but we hate arrogance. Most women don't want to date a wimp, but at the same time they don't want to date someone who's so self-absorbed that they don't even pay attention to you. With me so far?"

Naruto blinked several times and tilted his head to the side, it was his thinking pose. "Yeah, I can understand that. Go on."

"Right. Now, a common misconception is that women don't like it when you check them out, you know. Like you were doing to me earlier."

Poor Naruto choked on the tea had been drinking at the time.

"It's what you do after you start checking us out that matters, if you just stand there staring like a perv of course we're going to want to kick you in the groin. But if we find you attractive as well and you flash us a little smile, not a smirk, a smile-" She clarified; Naruto didn't really know there was a difference.

"- then initiate a conversation, well. That's an entirely different story. Above all else, if you really want to get a womans attention, give her attention. Without coming off as clingy, of course."

"Not complicated huh?" His displeasure shown clearly in his voice.

Anko couldn't help but laugh a bit. "I know it seems like a lot, but just give it some thought. You'll get some practice too, don't worry about that." She concluded her little lesson with a wink.

"Why are you trying to help me though, I mean it's not like you owe me any favors." He questioned, apparently though. It was a rather stupid question, if the look Anko gave him was any indication.

"Is that a serious question?" She was looking at him as though he had just confessed to being 8 headed mutant or something.

"Well.. Yeah.." he could only shrug, he honestly didn't get what was so weird about asking that.

Anko for her part, didn't know how to answer such an idiotic and obvious question, so, she just pointed to her curse seal, then pointed to her mongoose mask that was hanging up beside Narutos and Yugaos near the door.

"Oh.. That."

X Following morning X

Yugao seemed to notice a change in atmosphere, but chose not to bring it up. Whatever happened, the tension that had previously been created from Anko consistently messing with Naruto had all but dissolved. They were even having a fairly lengthy conversation, like they were old friends or something.

"So the canister can hold enough of the gas to fill an entire building?" She asked in interest, nothing like having a conversation about mass murder to start the day.

"Yup, I've used it to force targets out of overly secure locations and cause enough chaos for me and Kakashi to get relatively close when they try escorting him or her out. It's equipped with a timer so you have a chance to get out of there. Made it because neither of us are that great with stealth and infiltration." Naruto shrugged at that, it was the truth.

Sure, if he had time to prepare he could do a flawless disappearing act. But he didn't have the natural ability to remain hidden on the move as well as say, someone like Anko for example.

"So how'd you plant it if you didn't have enough skill to infiltrate the places to begin with?" Not that she doubted him, but that story was full of holes.

"Ahhh.. Not something you talk about when you're eating." Naruto shrugged and cocked his thumb at Hana. "Delicate ears and all."

"Hey now that's not fair. I may not be as experienced in that type of thing, but I'm not some delicate flower you need to tip toe around, you know." Hana frowned, she was beginning to feel like the ugly duckling in this group..

"Uhh. Sorry, I guess that was kind of, rude of me."

Ok, that got Yugaos attention, two apologies in one week. That's one for the record books. 'Anko has to be behind this, wonder what she did to cause the change in attitude.' She had her theories, though she knew they were all out of the question. Anko was a lot of things, but a pedophile she was not.

"No big deal, really... You were saying?" Hana was quick to forgive, unlike most of her clan.

"Right. Well, first you need a dead body, and then you take a kunai and slice its guts out. After that you implant the canister into its stomach, before sewing the stomach closed nice and tight.

Then with a little seal of mine that I place on the cadaver's throat I can basically turn it into a temporary puppet Sasori style and use that persons voice to talk. Though Kakashi has better chakra control so he was the puppeteer. Anyways the timers equipped with an explosive device so that it can.. What?" Naruto questioned, stopping mid sentence seeing the looks on their faces.

Hana looked a bit pale, Yugao looked downright shocked and Anko, well Anko looked as though she was about to have an orgasm.

"You're so teaching that to me." Was the snake mistress' only response to Narutos stare.

"Don't look at me like that, kakashi's the psycho, I'm just the mad scientist." Stated Naruto with a deadpan expression, as if that statement made everything perfectly natural.

'Naruto, are you busy at the moment?' The Hokages voice appeared in his head, accompanied by a tingling in his neck. Signaling that he was making use of the telecommunication seal. Naruto quickly held up his hand signaling for the ladies to halt their conversation before responding.

'Of course not Hokage-Sama, do you have a mission for us?' He asked, adopting his "On duty" attitude.

'No no, not at the moment. I was just wondering how those updated security and barrier seals the council commissioned you to create are coming.'

Naruto gave a mental nod, if that was even possible. 'Finished them last night, actually. Would you like me to head over to the prison today and start setting everything up?'

That surprised Sarutobi, finishing the seals was one thing, but drawing up all the copies of them was another matter.

'How'd you manage that Naruto?' The answer wasn't surprising, at first.

'Shadow clones Hokage-sama.'

'Yes, of course. Absorbing all those memories of writing must've been unpleasant. A little taste of what it's like to be Hokage, possibly.' Sarutobi chuckled slightly to himself.

'Oh no I wouldn't do that; I'd probably be tempted to do a swan dive off of the Hokage Monument afterwards. I just use the Shadow Clone Jutsu to make copies of the seals themselves.' Said Naruto, he'd be damned if he experienced drawing seals for 72 hours straight in the span of one second, damn things were time consuming. He loved studying seals and all, but the actual act of producing numerous copies was beyond repetitive.

'Ah. Yes, that would make more sense, must be slipping in my old age. But to answer your question, yes, go ahead and make your way to the prison with your squad, I'll send word ahead of your imminent arrival. Keep me up to date with your progress, no need to rush either. Be careful around that lot.'

'Of course, Hokage-Sama.' The link was then broken and Naruto quickly filled his team in on the Nature of their assignment before gearing up and heading out.

X Konoha Prison X

When they had arrived the inmates had teased and attempted to goad Naruto into becoming angry, mainly by comparing his age to his rank and making their opinion of what his skills must've been well know. When they did so Naruto didn't so much as twitch, though the moment they turned and begun focusing their attention on his teammates...

"Be still." And that was that. Naruto then turned his attention towards a nearby Chunin. "How many inmates are on this cell block?"

"T-Two-hundred and forty captain." Stuttered the Chunin, having been caught off guard by the massive amounts of bloodlust and killer intent coming from the young man only moments ago.

Naruto nodded his thanks before stepping forward so that all the prisoners could see him; he looked a moment before speaking. "Good morning to you all, as of late the council requested that I upgrade this prisons security. I have 3 seals to apply today. The first will go on the bars of your cells; the second on you yourselves and the last will go on the prison itself. I'm not here to have a dick measuring contest with you; I'm simply here to do my job. I expect you all to be on your best behavior so that this can be done in a quick and smooth manner. Understood?"

A chorus of their understanding rang out, Naruto then looked back at his teammates before issuing their orders. "Mongoose, kitten, make rounds around the cells and make sure my clones don't miss anything if they're attempting something. Condor, take the triplets and do the same, have them focus on metallic and plastic scents." His teammates nodded their understanding and set off on their tasks, Naruto then formed the cross seal.

"Ninja Art: Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." The area momentarily filled with smoke, as it cleared hundreds of copies of the Anbu captain were revealed.

'Holy shit on a stick…' Was the most popular thought among the Chunins and inmates alike.

X Several Hours Later X

After equipping the two part seal to backs of the inmates and the backs of their cells, he then wrapped a seal around a bar of their cell doors; Naruto then began creating a large array of seals on the floor of the prison. It was a big job, even with the aid of shadow clones it took the better part of four hours.

Naruto motioned the Chunin, as well as his own team to step back from the array before addressing the prisoners. "All three of these seals are interconnected, when activated the first seal I applied to your backs and to those of your cell walls will form a powerful chain of chakra. If when activated your out of the confines of your cells the chain will reel you in. when that happens you better hope to kami your cell doors aren't closed."

He stated that last part in a low, warning voice before continuing.

"The cell doors themselves, when activated, become a massive conduit of electricity, also creating an internal barrier within the cells. Do not try to force your way out, you will regret it. Lastly, this large array you see synchronizes all three seals and erects a powerful barrier around the exterior of the prison. On another note, all of this will be fueled by you yourselves; the chains I mentioned earlier will be draining your chakra the entire time they're activated."

Any previous notions of an early getaway had dissolved from every ones minds. They glared at the young Anbu captain, though a healthy amount of fear showed in each of their eyes, so he didn't comment.

Naruto then moved to sit, taking a seemingly meditative pose, before a massive amount of chakra forced its way from his coils.

"Fuijin Jutsu: Three Layered Fortress!"

X 20 minutes later X

After finishing up at the prison the four of them had gone to check in with the Hokage, after a brief report they were dismissed and allowed to go about their business.

"I have to say, that was fairly impressive senpai." Commented Yugao, Anko and Hana had decided to hit the hot springs. Having left while mumbling something about feeling dirty after being eye raped for 5 hours straight.

"It's no big deal; all I really had to do was add onto existing seals and interconnect them." He shrugged, Naruto wasn't being modest he just had a bad habit of comparing his sealing skills to that of his fathers. In his opinion, there simply was no comparison.

Yugao shook her head while smiling, sitting at the kitchen table while Naruto prepared them some dinner, her opinion being the opposite of his own. She had seen the hours he'd put into that array. Suddenly, her previous train of thought from this morning took over. "Naruto, I was wondering something. Earlier this morning I happened to notice a change between yourself and Anko.. What exactly happened there?"

"Well.." he began while tilting his head and tossing the stir fry a few times. "Its… I have no idea." He admitted shaking his head. "Last night we just got to talking about some stuff, she gave me some advice and, I don't know." Naruto couldn't quite put into words what had happened with her last night, though there was no way he was mentioning the incident in the kitchen.

"Advice on what, exactly?" Questioned Yugao, her interest piqued.

"Women…" Naruto said dryly, not really feeling up to a deep discussion so soon again.

"So she told you why she's always teasing you huh?" She couldn't help but chuckle as he fidgeted.

"Yeah. So, do you think she'll stop once I've learned enough, or whatever?" That had been something he'd asked himself soon after heading back to bed last night, their conversation having still been on his mind.

"Well, that's hard to say. By the time that happens things may have changed into genuine flirtation." She figured she'd just be blunt about it from here on out; he seemed to be handling it well so far.

"Oh. What about... I mean, what about you?" he asked, his eyes focused on the pan, swallowing the lump in his throat as a thought crossed his mind. 'Did I just…'

'Someone's getting brave.' Thought the purple haired Kunoichi, Naruto had just quite possibly hit on her.

"Well, that's hard to say really. I can't predict the future, but in a few years if you're the same type of person you are now, I don't think I'd mind us having a closer friendship. I don't mean dating but.. Well, you'll understand in time I'm sure."

Naruto, yet again was confused. 'Doesn't quite sound like she's implying anything sexual. So what thehell_ is_ she talking about?' He shrugged it off, maybe she was right and he'd figure it out, eventually.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

And we're done. This was hard to write, I'm not sure why. But yeah, must've written the scene with Naruto and Anko in the kitchen about a dozen times. Still not completely happy with it, but oh well. As for what Yugao was talking about, no she wasn't implying anything sexual. Ever had a really, really close friendship with a female? It's nice actually, if you're into the lovey dovey stuff.

Anyways, as you can see around the ladies he's relatively laid back and relaxed when they're all off duty. On duty he's a beast, once the mask slips on Naurto will consistently fuck shit up as you'll see in upcoming chapters. Coming up next is their first major mission, might attempt a lengthy chapter and try to make it a mission worthy of Anbu.


	6. Loyalty VS Obsession

Went back and lengthened this chapter, after going back and reading it a few times I just felt like it could use a bit more. So, I added onto it with my interpretation of Danzo and Narutos reaction to what Anko had went along with. He knows she was doing her duty, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. Also he just doesn't know what was real and what was an act. She'll be remedying that, soon, probably.

X With Naruto and Yugao, one week after Prison Visit and Booty Short Surprise X

"I'm bored."

Yugao could only sigh and rub her temples; it was the thousandth time Naruto had lamented about his boredom in the past three days.

"Yes senpai, I kind of picked up on that… Stop whining, she'll be back before you know it." She smirked; the reason for his foul mood was fairly obvious to her.

Although ANBU had permanent teams, captains of each squad had the ability to go to one another and request the assistance of one of their members. This recently happened; Anko had disputably one of the best records for her work as an assassination and interrogation specialist. Unlike a lot of todays shinobi she was very valuable when the need for an "accidental death" arose. So it wasn't surprising that a captain had requested her assistance right after Naruto had put his squad on the active duty list that morning, since the Hokage didn't have a mission for him at that moment, he was obligated to relent and allow it. Or at least that was the way traditionally it all went.

Though he wouldn't admit it, he missed the banter and playful flirtation of the woman, he couldn't help it, plus…

Ankos freaking hot.

That coupled with the fact that when she wasn't "Training" him, it was really easy and even enjoyable to talk to her. Whenever he talked about missions, seals, jutsu theory and what not it usually went over a person's head. Unless he was talking to someone in one of those particular fields, of course. But Anko was surprisingly intelligent; she kept up or at least partially comprehended just about everything he said to her.

She was just plain fun to talk to.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Yugao." He denied, glaring a whole through the clock he'd been starring at for the last fifteen minutes.

"You miss her, there's nothing wrong with that. So what's the big deal with admitting it?"

"I don't."

"You do."

Twitch, twitch.

Naruto let a long, exaggerated groan escape his lips. "Do you really _have_ to be difficult today?"

Yugao found his intense denial hilarious and made it clear by bursting into cheerful laughter. Hana for her part just smiled, deciding to add her two cents to the matter. "I know she's teasing you and all Naruto, but I mean I don't see a big deal either. So you've got a little crush, what's the problem with that? You're at that age now after all."

Nartuos shoulders drooped at that, he regarded Hana with a mock hurt expression. "You too Hana, you too?"

Another fit of laughter tore through Yugao, Kami she loved this squad.

Hana knew she shouldn't laugh, but it was just so cute! Seeing the almighty and infamous Naruto, youngest captain in Anbu history since Kakashi Hatake, pouting over missing his first crush.

Adorable!

"Ahh to hell with it, I'm going to go torture Kakashi for a while." Naruto quickly disappeared in a swirl of leaves; the laughter though seemed to follow him.

Hana frowned, feeling a little bad now. "You think we went a little overboard?" She asked her teammate.

"Nah, sooner he admits it too himself the better. Besides, he knows we're not really making fun of him. Trust me. If we were genuinely being bitches too him we'd be backhanded to the other side of Konoha." She stated simply with a small smile, knowing that to be the truth. A few people saw the way they joked around and took Naruto for the type to just roll with the punches. Well that was true, if he knew and liked you.

If he didn't though and you gave him just cause to do so, he'd be the one delivering the punches, literally.

Hana nodded her agreement, Yugao knew him a lot better than she did, so she'd just take her word for it.

X With Naruto and Kakashi X

Kakashi was only ever at a few key places, the Ninja Memorial, mourning and lamenting over his lost teammates and sensei, his apartment, and the bookstore. However soon after he took Naruto on as a student, he found himself going to the memorial less and less, honestly, the boy had done just as much for Kakashi as Kakashi had done for him, even if he didn't know it.

Taking that into consideration, finding him was pretty easy. Soon after entering and relaxing in his apartment, Kakashi had picked up on his bad mood and started prodding for information. What he was told wasn't what he expected.

"You have a crush… On Anko…" His one visible eye was wide and his precious Icha Icha was all but forgotten.

"I know, I know. I'm having just as big of an issue with it as you are damnit." Naruto begun to rub his temples in irritation just as Yugao had earlier.

Mission accomplished on her part.

Kakashi gave a half assed smile before continuing. "What brought this on, exactly?"

Naruto shook his head before moving into a seated position and adopted a contemplative look. "I don't know, maybe it's just because she's ridiculously sexy?"

Kakashi "hmmm'd", for a moment as he thought on that. "Well, your attraction to her is undoubtedly part of it. You are becoming a young man now, Naruto. But you've worked with Kunoichi that put her to shame in the past, hell; Yugao gives her a run for her money. If that was it I doubt you'd be having much of an issue." He shrugged, he didn't think that was the only reason why, couldn't be.

"Well… We have been spending a lot of time together.." He stated with a frown and a shrug, it was true.

"Well I'd imagine so; you do kind of live together Naruto." Kakashis face blanched, thinking he was just stating the obvious.

"No, no. You don't understand. I mean during the day yeah we're around each other too, but, she still isn't sleeping very well. I hardly sleep at all. Get it?" He just put it out there, though it sounded a lot worse than it actually was.

"You've been spending your nights together. Gotcha. What've you been doing then?" He was definitely interested now.

Naruto went ahead and told him about his little run in with her that first night, getting a perverted giggle in response as well of an understanding look.

"And the nights after that?"

"We went out to get something sweet to eat; really, we just talk a lot…"

Kakashi slowly nodded, it was easy to see why he would like her. They've lived similar lives, not that Narutos burden had been overly bad, nothing but the contrary really. Kyuubis regeneration was the reason he was able to push himself so hard without ending up in the hospital every other day, after all. But until recently, neither one had anyone they could really relate too, or. Well, Naruto had him of course. But they were both very busy nowadays.

"What should I do Kakashi? I mean, I'm twelve so there isn't much I _can _do." He was staring at the ceiling as he spoke, lamenting on not actually being as old as he felt.

"It's not so bad. Just focus on being her friend, your enjoying yourself still even with just that right?" Naruto nodded his agreement. "So, it shouldn't be too hard. Just relax, keep doing whatever it is that you're doing. Who knows, maybe Ankos having the same problem you are. If that's the case, then in a few years things should happen naturally. To sum up what I'm saying, don't focus on what you don't have. Be thankful for what you do have. Understand?"

Naruto just gave him a look as he nodded. "You should really write this shit down, you know. When'd you get all deep?" It was an odd concept to him.

"Your lack of faith disturbs me Naruto; you know full well I'm…Naruto?"

Naruto had gone stiff, his eyes widening. "I have to go; I do believe shit just hit the fan."

X Forest of Death X

"Danzou! I should have Known, I should have _known _you were still going behind my back. What's gotten into that old decrepit head of yours, are you attempting to start another world war? You know damn well the balance of power is delicate in the shinobi nations!" The third Hokage was pissed, it was rare for that to happen, but not impossible. It's not a good idea to make him angry; he was the youngest Hokage in the history of the Hidden Leaf Village for a _damn_ good reason.

The clearing within the forest, well, now it was a clearing; was riddled with the bodies of root members and Konoha ANBU alike. Though Root didn't have great numbers, needing to be somewhat subtle for what're now obvious reasons. Their shinobi were powerful, with someone with like Danzo pulling the strings that was to be expected.

"Your too soft to be Hokage anymore Hiruzen, you old monkey. I am attempting to forge a path of greatness for Konoha, we are the strongest Hidden Village, and we should be the _only _faction of Shinobi in this world. When all is said and done, Konoha will be an empire, not a single village. Or at least, that was my plan until that abomination Yamato interfered." Danzo gritted his teeth in rage, his most loyal subordinate, Sai, had betrayed him. He had no idea how he had managed to talk about root, but he did and now everything he had worked for was falling to pieces. The curse seal he planted on every Root member was flawless, or so he thought.

X With Anko X

Anko panted as she blocked another strike from Konoha Root member, these bastards were persistent to say the least. She twisted his armed and made use of her lower center of gravity chucking him over her shoulder before using her hidden snake hand jutsu to catch him in midair, the snakes coiling around him and sinking their fangs into his throat. "Heh. Pansies are gonna have to do better than that if you wanna mess with… shit." As she spoke three more Shinobi had appeared behind her, turning she mentally cursed as they rushed forwards and unsheathed their ninjato. 'Damnit, I didn't even get to kill that bastard Orochimaru… Oh well, I'm sure Naruto will get around to it at some point.' She thought grimly… She really hoped he didn't hate her for taking part in it all. That's the last thing she wanted, she could honestly say that the brat was the first real friend she'd had in a very long time.

She wasn't about to go down without a fight though, luckily for her, she wasn't alone.

Her eyes opened wide in shock as two copies of who appeared to be her captain appeared in front of her.

"Fire style: Grand fireball Jutsu!"  
>"Wind style: Great breakthrough Jutsu!"<p>

The heat of the combined jutsu was beyond intense, she was fifteen yards away from it yet it still felt as though she'd stuck her head into a broiling oven. The torrent of flame that'd make even the Uchiha proud engulfed the surprised and unprepared root ANBU, Narutos clone poofed out of existence and he leveled her with a stare, his eyes seeming to pierce through the bat mask and look directly into her soul. The flames dancing behind him lighting up the night sky, didn't really help the image to be any less intimidating.

"You're hiding something from me."

Anko flinched; there was no hiding the guilt in her eyes. But duty before drama. "I am… And it'll be explained to you later, but for now we have work to do, captain."

It was difficult to talk; the amount of killing intent coming off of him was, indescribable.

"Don't fall behind." Was all that was said before he turned on his heel and left, leaping over the flames still charring the surrounding foliage and raced deeper into the forest.

She almost felt sorry for the Root shinobi. Almost.

X Several minutes later X

After cutting his way towards the Hokages position, he'd met up with Yugao along the way. Covered in blood, just like him. Luckily for them none of it was theirs. Naruto had a bit of a plan to cut down on the Root forces, it was simplistic, brutal and he knew it'd work. He'd delivered the details to all the ANBU in the area and had them do hit and run tactics, maneuvering the enemy forces into a tightly formed grouped formation.

It should be noted, that after his battle with Hamara, Naruto had taken steps to solve his problem with abnormally powerful defenses.

'Captain bat, we're 50 yards from your position and closing in quickly, the Root shinobi have been formed just as you specified, came in the familiar voice of Yamato.'

'On the count of three, everyone hit the deck and prepare to dodge debris.'

'One.'

Naruto jumped up into the treetops, aligning himself with their position, he raised his right arm. A seal array coming to life all across his bicep and forearm, looking akin to an intricate spiraling tattoo.

'Two.'

They were close now; he could sense their chakra signatures clearly. In the very center of his right hand a small sphere of wind, no larger than the tip of his pinky began to form, enlarged the size of his fist, then rapidly condensed itself. It repeated this process three times.

'Three!'

The human eye couldn't have hoped to track it, hell; even a sharingan user may not have been able to follow his improved assassination jutsu. All the Konoha Nin knew, was that a moment ago there had been about two dozen Root shinobi pursuing them, and now there were four dozen _pieces _of root shinobi on the forest floor. They'd been cut in half, and the warning captain bat had given them about debris had become clear. They all found themselves dodging trees that'd also been sliced cleanly in half; the forest of death had gotten noticeably thinner in their immediate area.

After the chaos settled and the thundering of the falling trees that'd been there for the better part of the century stopped, all their heads swiveled too look upon Bat in awe, his arm still raised, the array on his arm slowly disappearing.

"Don't just stand there you idiots, help your Hokage!"

Help the Hokage, right. As if he needed it.

X With Sarutobi X

Sarutobi couldn't really say that he was overly surprised that Danzo after all these years wasn't a pushover, his two bodyguards Fu and Torune proved troublesome as well. They'd managed to hold back the ANBU squad assisting him the entire time Danzo and himself had been fighting. Regardless, it was drawing to a close now. Sarutobi had just sent his summon back to wherever the hell it had come from, odd creature. Dazo had revealed and used his ten sharingan, fairly quickly, anyone could see that he was on his last legs, though Sarutobi had learned over the years to not drop his guard around Ninja, especially not one as experienced as himself.

"This is it Danzo, no second chances, no justification, no more secrets or escapes. It's most likely come at a great sacrifice, but this ends now." He was of course referring to Narutos trust, it was debatable whether he'd have that again.

"I'm not finished yet, if I'm going to die. You're going with me. My only hope is that the council places this villages in hands not so soft as yours." Danzo then disrobed his torso, revealing a series of seals.

'Move your ass Hokage!' Came a warning of Naruto, Sarutobi chose not to question it and hopped back, good thing too. A massive sphere of seemingly black charkra expanded from his form, a large vacuum of wind formed and begun sucking in all that surrounded it.

Luckily, the resident funjutsu master was around. Four kunai descended from the sky, along with them Naruto burst from the forest and rushed forward. He planted his feet firmly in front of Danzos position, his back to the Hokage.

"Fuin: Pressurized Encampment Jutsu!" Screamed Naruto, a large expulsion of chakra following his proclamation. A dome formed around Danzos, if you were to look closely you'd be able to notice small pores in Narutos creation. Suddenly wind rushed into the dome, once again creating a powerful suction. Danzos black sphere was visibly strained, forced to reduce in size by the thousands of pounds of pressure. Though it clearly wasn't as simple a matter as it seemed, if the sweat seeping from Narutos exposed skin were any indication.

'I don't know if I can hold it, I think its sealing away whatever it draws in. Everyone evacuate the premises now!' His hands shook with effort, held in the place of a hand seal, the kunai that held his barrier in place shook along with their user, threatening to come out of their place and dispel the technique.

'Just focus Naruto! You've got this; I know you can do it. I'm not losing my most trusted shinobi on this day!' Mentally screamed Sarutobi, fearful for his surrogate grandson life.

'Damnit, I'm running out of chakra.' It was true, maintaining this technique was the equivalent of maintaining an A rank wind ninjutsu constantly. It was designed to kill, not necessarily to contain. Though he thought anything else he could have done wouldn't have been enough.

It would appear though that the Hokages faith in him was well placed, slowly Danzos jutsu receded revealing a massive crater in the earth, confirming Narutos earlier suspicion. As it faded away he dropped to his hands and knees gasping for much needed breath.

In the background Sarutobi smiled proudly, he'd been doing that quite often.

'You never disappoint me Naruto, your father would be proud.'

X Several Hours Later, Kakashis Apartment X

"So, any theories about what's going on? You mentioned Anko admitting to hiding something from you." Asked Kakashi, he had his theories, but didn't want to believe any of them.

"I don't know, I'd rather not think about it. Chances are I'm already going to be pissed off enough when I find out." Was Narutos monotone reply, whatever it was. It couldn't be good. A knock on Kakashis door signaled that his wish wouldn't be granted tonight, he just wanted to sleep for fucks sake.

Kakashi sighed sensing things were going to get annoying soon, but relented and answered the door. Unsurprisingly, it was Anko, though it was a surprise that the Hokage was accompanying her.

"Is he awake?" Kakashi simply nodded in response and stepped out of the way, raising a brow at Ankos worried appearance. 'Hmmmm. I doubt she's scared for her life, maybe she's worried about something more valuable.' He resisted the urge to smile at that thought.

The Hokage took a seat on the couch adjacent to Naruto, Anko standing behind him. "I believe I have some explaining to do."

"I've known you were manipulating me for a while now, I just hadn't figured out why, or for what reason. It's somewhat clear now, though." He stated dryly, his gaze never shifting from the ceiling.

Ankos expression was shocked; the Hokage wasn't too surprised. It's to be expected, really. Naruto was no fool; it would seem his paranoia finally paid off.

"The killswitch, as you refer to it, was a part of Danzos curse seal, not Orochimarus. We've had the seal for quite a while, but it seems you're a bit more inventive than I am when it comes to seals, Naruto. Or at least in breaking them." The Hokage paused. "I'll admit, my… Manipulation of you, goes back further than I'd care to admit."

No response, he didn't so much as blink, so Sarutobi simply continued. "Originally I did present you with some resources simply because I do care deeply for you, but once I saw the amount of raw potential you had I knew what needed to be done. Did you ever wonder why new material simply found its way into the library on a regular basis? That was my doing, Jirayas as well. We threw as much information at you as we could, including the shadow clone jutsu and its uses, so that you'd be able to make use of your full potential. You absorbed information like a sponge, it was quite remarkable, really. When you warranted early graduation I knew Kakashi would be the perfect sensei, nobody knew as wide a range of jutsu as he did. That's also why your two teammates were failed whilst doing the bell test, so he could exclusively train you."

The Hokage took a deep breath, halfway through Naruto had finally looked his way. "So it was, you climbed through the ranks quickly, which I took pride in. But also I saw it as a way to finally pin down Danzo; I needed you in ANBU, so that you'd be directly reporting to me. I kept you on a constantly rotating team to minimize the chances of a run in with Root. I did everything in my power to keep them away from you and keep you out of there watchful gaze. I began throwing harder and harder tasks your way, then intentionally I planted some thoughts in your mind through a normal conversation on the subject of curse seals. This is where Ankou came into play." That last part had his attention, Anko around on her feet shifted nervously. This was what she'd been waiting for.

"Jiraya had managed to copy Danzos curse seal at one point in time, he already knew how to destroy it, but not without killing the person I'm afraid. So, we disguised it and placed it on Ankos pre existing curse seal she received from Orochimaru, knowing you liked a challenge and that you had a kind heart. We expected you'd attempt to help her, we were proven right, thankfully." There it was, everything was out on the table… Almost.

"That's pretty impressive, you being able to orchestrate all this. I'm assuming you did it because you weren't sure how far deeply Root went, am I right?" A nod from the Hokage was the expected response. "I see. And all this, this entire plan was riding on whether or not I'd inherited my fathers natural ability with seals?"

"correct again Naruto. Not that I'm purely comparing your skills to your father, you have a technique all your own, as do most seal masters. Though the seals you do create are admittedly impressive, it doesn't hold a candle to your uncanny ability to see the flaws in them, and exploit them."

"Hold up. Father?" Asked Anko, Sarutobi had apparently left that one little bit of information out.

"Fourth Hokage." Stated Naruto bluntly, he didn't give a shit who knew at this particular moment in time. Though the reaction, her gawking face, was somewhat amusing even now.

"I'm so getting my ass kicked when I die." Whined Anko, couldn't blame her really. You'd want to keep living forever too if the Fourth Hokage wanted to kick your souls ass.

Maybe that's why Orochimarus so obsessed with eternal life?

"You seem to be handling this fairly well Naruto, or your just waiting for an opportunity to behead us."

Naruto just shook his head before restating himself. "Like I said, I knew something was up. Just didn't know what. I guess knowing for a while now kind of made it less shocking. Whatever Danzo was up to, it must've been pretty fucked up for you to manipulate me of all people."

"Indeed it was, well, is. The impact of his actions are still rippling throughout the affected areas." Stated the Hokage grimly, some of his previous anger at the man slipping though at the mere thought of his actions.

"What did he do? Or is that hush hush." Frowned Naruto, he would at least like to know the motivation behind such extreme measures.

"I'm afraid I can't divulge that information, unless you accept an offer of mine." Stated Sarutobi in an increasingly serious tone.

"I'm listening." His gaze returned to the ceiling.

"Firstly, I want you to take Danzos place on the council, I recently executed my two former teammates, so that's three seats that need filled."

Ok, so he wasn't expecting that. "And secondly?" His brows furrowed in wonder, what the hell else could he possibly be offering, him as the next Hokage?

Ha, right.

"I want you to create a new Root division, with you and a chosen few subordinates acting individually out in the field, which happens to be a war zone, in the interest of Konoha and hopefully our eventual allies."

"Can you at least give me a name of someone I'm going to be helping, something, anything? That's a lot to ask."

"Mei Terumi."

Naruto blinked in response to that. "Why her, what's she involved in?"

No response.

Naruto raised an eyebrow in response to the Hokages stony expression; Kakashi seemed to have an understanding look so Naruto got his opinion on the matter.

'What's his problem? Why won't he give me any information?'

'I don't think you fully realize what he's asking you to do Naruto, he's asking you to fill Danzos shoes.'

'Yeah, I picked up on that. But what's that got to do with answering-'

Kakashi cut him off.

'He and Danzo were adversaries, Naruto. He cannot be involved in the activities you'd be taking part in should you accept his request. Or did you not pick up on the meaning behind "acting _independently _in the interest of Konoha"? He's already said too much, Naruto."

The full realization dawned on Naruto.

'He wants me to… Why would he want another Danzo? I figured he was just implying that he wanted a secret task force or some shit. Damnit, he won't answer any questions from me now, unless I were to say no. Maybe, I'm just not asking the right questions.'

Naruto needed time to think, he also needed to figure out what exactly the Hokage was expecting him to do. Maybe it would help if he knew what exactly it was Danzo even did for the village that was supposedly so important?

"Danzo was involved in many unsanctioned activities, correct?" Inquired Naruto, getting a nod in response.

"His ultimate goal was to help Konoha become more powerful, right?" Another question and another nod.

"What good, if any, did Danzo do for this village?" He didn't think he'd get a response, though he was pleasantly surprised.

"Danzos opinion of me wasn't far off, really. If he hadn't been around to constantly keep me on my toes, I think I really would have gone soft over these years of peace. It's to be expected from military powers that go long lengths of time without any major conflicts, really." The Hokage sighed and Narutos eyes widened, slowly understanding what was going on here. Thankfully the Hokage wasn't finished.

"In times of peace, most military powers do indeed get more lax in their policies and regulations. It happened between the first and second war, and it happened between the second and third war." The Hokage reached inside his robes to fill his pipe before continuing.

"At the start of the second shinobi war, drafts had to be done because we simply didn't have the numbers we needed. Academic standards and expectations went through the roof, genin were expected to be on almost the same level as our Chunin are right now, for example." He paused to puff his precious pipe. "We were also less forgiving back then, in laymen terms, if someone fucked with us, we fucked with them right back." The vulgarity of the statement was a surprise; none in the room had ever known the Hokage to use such language.

"However, when peace reigned in, things went back to the way they are as of right now. But, it's gotten to the point to where some Nations believe that we've gotten weak. Admittedly, we don't have the same power as we used to. Especially after the Uchiha massacre. Back in the three wars that Konoha had fought in, the Uchiha were godsends. Their eyes were indispensable, but not only for combat. For information gathering as well. However other than young Sasuke, the Uchiha are no more. Thankfully the Hyuuga and Yamanaka can somewhat pick up their slack, though the Hyuuga are less willing to risk their Bloodline falling into the wrong hands than the Uchiha were. I've been rather understanding of that, Danzo was not. He went so far as to suggest that their caged bird seal be placed on branch and main house members alike so that they wouldn't have any excuses in aiding us, or following orders."

Silence reigned in, Anko observed Narutos expression as his eyes were staring at nothing, yet seemed to be examining everything.

"To sum up what I'm saying." The Hokage broke the heavy silence. "Whereas I'm the face of Konoha, leading it, nurturing it, turning it into a place where everyone could live in relative harmony and peace. Danzo was hidden, behind the scenes, the blade that struck out at its enemies, slicing them down without any thought or mercy. Danzo was a man who would do anything, and everything to turn Konoha into a military power of unequaled strength. Though we both defended this village with our lives, I'm not afraid to say that he set the standard of what a true, effective Ninja can and should be in times of war. Together we brought balance to each other, and Konoha."

Balance, that's what Danzo had done for Konoha, he'd balanced out Sarutobis relative kindness with his ruthlessness. That was what the Hokage was asking him to become.

Ruthless.

"I'd like to request some time away from the village. I also need to know what exactly Danzo was doing; I believe we should investigate things to make sure we know full well what he was getting us into."

Naruto looked into the Hokages eyes, accepting his hidden challenge. The village needed someone to set the standards? Naruto could do that, hell he'd already been doing that. Improving the strength and security of the village, as well as its effectiveness? Old news, the seals he'd created had already started doing that. As for the Hyuuga, if they didn't want to serve the village, then they needed to find somewhere else to live. He'd deal with them, somehow.

Right now though, he needed to get to Kirigakure.

"Though within my power to grant such a request, since you're still registered in ANBU, I believe a council meeting is in order. We just adjourned before I came here, so it'll need to wait until tomorrow. I myself do agree though, there are plenty of holes in the information we gained that need filling."

Naruto nodded his agreement, that was fine, he needed to determine who he could trust anyways. Kakashi was a given, he knew he'd follow him anywhere. Kakashi was cutthroat when the need arises; he could be just as much of a monster as anyone else. Yugao, he figured she'd be pretty much the same way, he'd seen her in combat. Anko was in-between the line, really. On one hand he knew she was grateful to him, even if the killswitch was a hoax, he'd still been working on a way to get rid of the curse seal. But this whole thing had shown that he probably didn't mean as much to her as he'd thought.

Naruto wasn't quite sure why, but when he thought on that fact, his heart had begun to hurt.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yup. I know, I know. Where the hell did that come from right? I have no clue, but imma sure as shit role with it. By the way, the title basically means ANBU VS Root if you didn't pick up on the symbolism. I'm going to be going back and editing previous chapters now, need to touch up on my laziness. I think this story might get pretty long so it's definitely worth doing. Rest of the details will be revealed in the next chapter, along with interaction between Naruto and Anko.


	7. Bad To the Bone

**X READ THIS! X**

**Chapter 6 has been lengthened, in case any of you hadn't noticed, read it before you move on to this chapter. **

Wanted to formally thank all of you guys for your encouragement, it's appreciated.

Naginator: Good predictions, you know your Narutoverse well my friend. Let's see if you can predict who'll be joining Root before it's revealed in this chapter. I'll most likely do a Yugao pairing story eventually, or just make a one shot. May take this story and do AU one shots with it, I've seen it done before. Just can't write anything with that idiot Canon-Naruto. Lol

Lordamnesia: Glad you like it, some people are misinterpreting it. Which I don't quite understand.

Fan: Thanks, I agree.

Azurealkaze: Thanks, I'll do that, and yes I am. Really love the pairing, really sucks that it's such a small portion of the fics on here.

Mkterra: -steals girs voice from invader zim- Waffleszzzzzz! ^o^!

Albatross Aoba: Firstly, if you didn't want to still be reading this "Shit" then you wouldn't still be reading it. It's not a harem; I've already stated that it isn't and wouldn't be. Harems are completely unrealistic and just an excuse for people to break out the lotion in my opinion. Go read something else, I don't care.

First flame so far, I'm feeling more accomplished. You're not doing something right if someone isn't getting pissed off. Just for future reference, if you're going to flame me that's perfectly fine. You're more than entitled to your own opinion. But at least have the decency to enable your PM's. It's only fair that you let me defend my story and discuss your concerns, I think.

Enjoy.

X Several Days Later After the events of Loyalty VS Obsession X

"We'll camp here for the night." Stated Naruto, to every ones relief. Getting approval had been fairly simple; he had a lot of pull with the council nowadays it would seem. That would come in handy.

Danzo had some serious shoes to fill however; it had been revealed to him that Danzo had been using his Root ANBU to support the Mizukage, Yagura, by leaking information of bloodline users' whereabouts and abilities to assist him in a mass genocide around Kiri. While also taking the opportunity to collect as much information about their military as possible, while _also___going as far as to give Yagura misleading information, leading his men to attack certain clans that were quite powerful while using insufficient force.

His motives were just as sinister as his tactics, Danzo had hoped that by the time all was said and done Kiri would be weakened to the point of being forced to align itself with Konoha, and would be further convinced after he revealed that he'd been helping them the entire time. This was a very, very bad thing.

In every single war Kiri had been neutral; they'd never outright participated in any skirmish, in any war. This made things even, 2 vs 2, in regards to the five great shinobi nations, plus whatever lesser allies they had. However Kiri choosing a side would tip the scales in that factions favor, leading to a massive bloodbath and obliteration of whatever enemies Konoha had at the time. This sounded good in theory, but not in practicality.

After that happened, there would be two territories up for grab.

It wouldn't stop after the initial war was over, allies or not that would be too good an opportunity for any of the remaining shinobi nations to pass up. There would be more bloodshed, lots of it. After the dust had settled there would only be one nation left after all was said and done, Danzo had planned for that nation to be Konoha.

Naruto wanted Konoha to be more powerful, but he felt confident he could do internally, without spilling thousands of gallons of blood. So Danzos plan was a no go.

'Naruto, you realize we're being followed, right?' Came in Kakashis voice, broadcasting his message to Naruto and Yugao alike.

Naruto had decided he'd only be able to trust them, it left him a bit shorthanded, but he didn't have much choice.

'I know. Strategy 32. Go.'

X With Anko X

'Looks like they've set up camp, bout damn time.' Stated Anko to herself, she'd requested permission to join them on their mission. The Hokage had been kind enough and accepted, seeing how conflicted she was at the moment he couldn't refuse her. Besides, he thought Naruto could use some more help.

As she walked into their camp, Anko new something was wrong, her suspicions were confirmed when the tent, Kakashi, Yugao and Naruto burst into smoke and she was promptly trapped inside of a barrier Jutsu. That was fine, she had expected as much. Though her chakra being drained was rather annoying.

"Why did you follow us here?" Said Naruto, having appeared slowly out from the ground with an earth jutsu. He stood a few feet from the barrier and maintained an emotionless expression, though you could see his internal conflict raging in his eyes.

"I wouldn't have had to follow you if you hadn't left me behind!" Raged Anko, she understood why, that didn't mean she wasn't going to vent a little though.

"I understand you were doing your duty Anko, but you can't honestly expect me to trust you after that." Naruto frowned; he knew this was most likely going to happen at some point, he hadn't expected her to be so direct about it, though.

"Just get rid of the barrier so I can talk to you in private, Naruto. Please. I need to explain some things to you." She began shifting uncomfortably, Kakashi and Yugao were now standing beside him, and this wasn't really a conversation she felt up to having in public.

'Do it.' Again, it was Kakashi.

'What? Are you mentally challenged or something?' He leveled the Cyclops with a lopsided expression, looking at him as if he were retarded or something.

'Just, do it, Naruto.' He internally sighed; Kakashi knew better, he knew Anko was worth trusting. The Hokage wouldn't have allowed her to be there for everything that was said if he thought she wouldn't have been loyal to him. Her being brought too their initial meeting proved that.

'Fine. But if she kills me I'm going to haunt your ass.' With a half seal he deactivated the barrier, and frowned at Kakashi as he and Yugao left the clearing.

Anko sent a thankful look Kakashis way, having seen their expressions she guessed that she most likely owed him a favor. Maybe she'd play matchmaker with him and her fellow plum haired beauty after all this was settled.

"Thank you now let me explain some things." She started, steeling herself with a deep breath.

"I'm listening." Naruto replied dryly, mentally cursing Kakashi.

"You say that you understand the fact that I was simply doing my duty, but here you are acting butt hurt over it. I don't understand your logic, if there's anyone you should be angry at it's the Hokage. Yet you seemed to almost instantly and fully forgive him. So why not me?" Sure, she had come to make amends, but she wasn't going to roll over and act like he was the only one with the problem here. It'd hurt her doing this to him just as much as it had hurt him being on the receiving end.

"Because with the Hokage I know where the lies end and the truth begins."

That made her flinch; she had suspected something along those lines.

"So you think everything that happened, us becoming friends, spending our nights talking, joking around, getting to know each other and having fun. You think that it was all in act? Naruto, I didn't even need to act like your friend, I didn't need to tease you, or spend the vast majority of my time with you. You'd already begun working on the seal before we even met. I did all that because I wanted to, not because I was trying to encourage or manipulate you into working harder on the seal." She frowned deeply; everything was so distorted in his eyes. Anko knew he was paranoid, but right now it was blinding him to the truth of everything.

"Why then did you want to be close to me? I mean, in all that time it didn't appear that you were having any trouble with what you were doing at all. You seemed like-" 

He was cut off, now she knew he was just being stupid.

"Because I'm damn good at my job! You know that, Naruto. I didn't show that I was having trouble with what I was doing because I'm good at what I do. Just because I didn't ever randomly burst into tears doesn't mean I don't care… You're the first friend I've had in a long time, I do care, I care a lot about you… More than I probably should." She had to look away after that last part.

Naruto for his part was, shocked into silence. 'Is she implying that…? Naaaaaah. But… Nah…'

"What exactly are you trying to say, because. I'm a bit… I mean-" Again he was cut off, he was considering just saving people some time and just letting them talk for him.

"Your special to me, Naruto-Kun."

…

…

..

'Kakashi…'

'Yup?'

'Your awesome.'

'Yup!'

"I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what the hell I should do, and or say at this particular moment in time. If you, or Yugao, had expected me to be able to deal with something like _this. _You definitely should have put a lot more effort into messing with my head these past few weeks." He stated, it was really the only thing that came to mind, he sighed in relief though when Anko had burst into laughter and broke the uncomfortable tension in the air.

X Twenty Minutes Later X

After Yugao and Kakashi had come back, Anko had given them a bit of an apology as well. They'd headed off to bed now; knowing Naruto and Anko weren't quite through settling things. Kakashi had headed off with some innuendo and a perverted giggle, as well as a slap to the head courtesy of Yugao. Naruto knew he'd kept that woman around for a reason.

"So, where do we go from here, exactly?" He was still confused as to what the hell was going on between them, really.

"I don't know. Let's just keep going how we are now, you know? After all this is settled in Kiri, we go home and we just be ourselves. See where it takes us."

Naruto smiled at that, looking over at her as she sat next to him, starring into the crackling fire."Alright. I think I can do that."

"Good."

X The Next Day X

"You seem to be in a good mood, Naruto." Kakashi stated the obvious; Naruto and Anko both looked rather pleased with themselves.

"Shut up, just, shut up. On with the planning and what not." Naruto leveled Kakashi with a withering look, Anko joining him in doing so.

"What _is _the plan, exactly? We can't exactly change the tide of an entire war ourselves." Came the concerns of Yugao, she trusted Narutos judgment; he wasn't the type of person to go into a situation like this ill prepared. But this was serious business; Kiri had been plunged into a massive civil war for nearly a decade now.

"Danzos information was fairly detailed, we're going to go around the nearby villages and settlements, to the suspected locations of a few of the major clans. After that we need to convince them to stop running from the extermination squads and join Mei's cause. But that's not all we're here for." He took a breath before continuing, this next bit of information was the troubling part. "There've been rumors for quite some time, all around and even in Kiri itself, that the current Mizukage Yagura is being controlled by outside sources. Apparently this change in behavior, the genocide, is out of character. This seems to be the reason Mei took it upon herself to start the rebellion, over the years lots of people have tried to overthrow him, but none have succeeded thus far."

"Is the guy that much of a badass? I mean, I know he's a Kage and all, but I've heard that the entire 7 swordsman had banded together and tried to kill him. At least that's what's in the bingo book." Came Ankos concerns, a Kage was a kage, but even Sarutobi would have a problem with _all _the members of the 7 swordsman on his ass.

"He's a jinchūriki."

That got a fairly large reaction out of them; they hadn't been expecting that really. A container to a tailed beast had never had a position of power like that before.

"That's, some disturbing news, Naruto." Said Kakashi in a tired voice, he knew this was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Yeah. But it's not like when it comes down to it we'll be alone or anything, I haven't quite worked out what we'll do if it comes down to a direct conflict. But I should be able to cook something up by the time that happens." He shrugged, they'd cross that bridge when they came too it. "In the meantime though we're going to need to confirm whether or not this is even true, and if it is then we need to find out who's behind Yaguras brainwashing."

"I'll be handling that part then, I'm the most qualified for that type of thing." Stated Anko matter of factly, it was the truth, this is the type of thing she specialized in.

"I don't like you going in there alone, maybe you should take Yugao with-"

"Naruto. You can't let whatever… Concerns you have, interfere with the mission." She had to choose her words carefully; she refused to give that pervert Kakashi anymore ammo.

Naruto bowed his head in a mock depressed manner. "Yeah. Guess I'm going to have to get used to that. Bleh."

Anko couldn't help but chuckle at that, before trying to give him a little comfort. "Relax, just trust that I know what I'm doing, ok? I'll be fine, I promise."

Naruto reluctantly nodded, before thinking too himself. 'You better be, or all of Kiri will regret it. _That's _a promise.'

"Everyone remember, we can't allow ourselves to be discovered. At least not yet, until the wars over and done with our identities need to remain hidden at all costs, if we're caught, we won't be getting any help form Konoha. But at the same time I need recruits for Root, so be on the lookout for potential candidates."

X Several Hours Later, Kakashi X

After the brief meeting they'd all went their separate ways, Kakashi had been tasked with recruiting one of the more little known t clans. Apparently they were fairly barbaric, more akin to berserkers than anything. However every army needed some psychopaths to do some of the less, desirable dirty work.

'Where too first?' Kakashi asked himself in a lazy manner, he'd done a simple layered henge to make himself look a bit less like an infamous mass murdering shinobi, his hair shorter and charcoal black, while his eyes were hidden by a pair of sunglasses. He had had to remove his precious mask and rely on the jutsu to hide his face. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a bookstore.

'That'll do!'

X 6 Hours Later X

Kakashi though seemingly wasting time, did manage to cover a lot of ground and pick up some information, after the bookstore he'd hit up several bars, diners and even a small club, the last on this list had been the most fruitful.

'Animalistic barbarians. Yup. Sounds like them.' He'd overheard a couple talking about a clan of shinobi who'd been spotted in the surrounding forest recently; apparently they were planning a suicide attack on Kiri.

Tonight.

'Naruto, good news and bad news.'

'Already? That was fast, what've you been doing, interrogating half the town?' Naruto asked in a bitter tone of voice, he'd been discreetly sending out shadow clones the whole day and hadn't picked up on a thing yet.

'Good news first then, right. Well I've picked up on the trail of our little heathens; problem is they're planning on getting themselves killed tonight.' Was Kakashis ever aloof sarcastic response.

'Well get your ass in gear then, if even one of them have the bloodline they're worth the trouble.'

'You could say please, you know. Keep it up and I'm going to tell your little girlfriend your treating your big brother badly.' Stated Kakashi, talking as though he were speaking to a toddler.

'I'm going to hurt you.'

X Within the Forest X

"Heheahaha… Everybody remember; take down as many of them as you can before you die. Make sure you're covered in blood." The men around him all chuckled darkly, before nodding their agreement and arming themselves. They were all prepared, and even looked forwards to their own deaths, as long as they got to kill someone first, they wouldn't care.

The only people that can understand madness are the insane.

"Now, go grab the freak from his cell and-"

"Yo! How you guys doing on this wonderful night?"

Many a head turned at the random cheerful tone of voice, it wasn't something they were used to hearing.

"Are you with mist?" One of them questioned, they all drew there weapons at that thought.

"Nope. I'm with the rebellion. You know, you guys should join up with Mei. Sure, you could go into mist now, kill a few people and die afterwards. Or you could join up with another large group of shinobi and have the chance to stay alive long enough to get a lot more killing done!" Stated Kakashi, with an odd variation of the eye smile. It looked kind of stupid since both eyes and his face were revealed, albeit a henge.

"How do we know this isn't some trap? And what is that little tease even planning?"

Everyone let out a laugh at that last part, Mei was pretty infamous for her flirtation.

"Firstly, do you even care? Either way you still get to fight. Secondly, her end goal is to overthrow the Mizukage and take his place. Ending the bloodline genocide." Kakashi maintained a cool composure, even in the face of around 30 reasonably well trained barbarians.

Yeah, he's bad, want to fight about it?

"Good point."

The man who seemed to be the leader rubbed his chin in thought, whoever this guy is made a good point. If they were to join up with Mei they might even get a shot at the Mizukage himself.

"Why the fuck not? Let's go grab that freak and head out men."

"Freak?" Kakashi tilted his head in wonder that was the second time they'd mentioned that.

X 5 minutes later, nearby cave X

After questioning them on whom they were reffering too, they'd taken Kakashi too a nearby dark, damp cave. Litten only by torch lite he could just barely make out the sillouette of a young boy. Who appeared to be repeatedly with a kunai that appeared to be made out of…

'He has the bloodline…' Kakashi walked up to the kids cell, before getting a glare and an impressive amount of killing intent sent his way for his sudden movements.

"Hey there. You got a name kid?" Kakashi asked in an amiable tone, he needed the kid to like him. Though as long as he promised not to lock him up like a rat he was sure he'd be compliant.

"Kimimaro Kaguya."

xxxxxxxx

Sorry about the short chapter, pregnant step sister, evil kitten who doesn't like to let me sleep and now my immune system decided to shit out on me and let me get the flu. So yeah. Just releasing this chapter now because it may be a while before I'm writing much.

On another note, the next three chapters will most likely be individual adventures of team Naruto. Next is Yugao, then Naruto, then Anko. Anko's is going to be a pain in the ass too write, just have that feeling. May make another couple one shots, or post the first chapter of a story that's been fluttering around in my brain. Only thing stalling it is that I don't know how dark I want it to be, or what type of dark I want Naruto to be.


End file.
